Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, arriving Oct 2025 on premium platforms

A eerie occult suspense film from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an long-buried entity when outsiders become subjects in a dark ordeal. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of overcoming and archaic horror that will alter scare flicks this spooky time. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive motion picture follows five people who snap to caught in a isolated structure under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a ancient holy text monster. Anticipate to be gripped by a theatrical spectacle that melds primitive horror with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is radically shifted when the forces no longer arise externally, but rather from within. This depicts the most hidden version of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the events becomes a ongoing tug-of-war between heaven and hell.


In a desolate backcountry, five adults find themselves caught under the evil grip and haunting of a haunted person. As the team becomes unresisting to escape her dominion, cut off and chased by entities beyond comprehension, they are driven to deal with their deepest fears while the seconds mercilessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread swells and links shatter, forcing each person to reconsider their core and the foundation of conscious will itself. The intensity grow with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to channel deep fear, an spirit that existed before mankind, operating within fragile psyche, and questioning a will that challenges autonomy when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring fans across the world can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Be sure to catch this visceral descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to confront these chilling revelations about the soul.


For director insights, extra content, and updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets domestic schedule fuses ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, paired with franchise surges

Across endurance-driven terror saturated with near-Eastern lore to installment follow-ups alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified along with carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios are anchoring the year through proven series, as platform operators flood the fall with emerging auteurs set against primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is catching the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 scare year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A packed Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The emerging scare cycle stacks in short order with a January bottleneck, and then rolls through the summer months, and far into the holiday frame, combining brand heft, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. Studios and platforms are relying on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that shape these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has turned into the most reliable release in release plans, a space that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it misses. After 2023 reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted scare machines can shape the national conversation, the following year carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is space for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can open on almost any weekend, create a tight logline for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with fans that come out on opening previews and sustain through the second frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout shows comfort in that playbook. The year commences with a crowded January run, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall corridor that pushes into late October and beyond. The gridline also spotlights the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and broaden at the inflection point.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just producing another sequel. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting choice that anchors a upcoming film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are favoring on-set craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected driven by classic imagery, character previews, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that evolves into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that interlaces companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy treatment can feel big on a moderate cost. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that enhances both initial urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video blends licensed films with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using timely promos, horror hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 favors the known side. Scream Get More Info 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps announce the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a parallel release from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that plays with the horror of a child’s unreliable perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and headline-actor led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.