Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One spine-tingling mystic suspense story from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric evil when foreigners become vehicles in a cursed game. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will alter scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick story follows five teens who find themselves sealed in a isolated cabin under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Get ready to be hooked by a visual event that combines primitive horror with mythic lore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the presences no longer come outside the characters, but rather deep within. This depicts the most primal aspect of the group. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between moral forces.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five campers find themselves sealed under the malicious control and infestation of a mysterious female figure. As the cast becomes incapacitated to fight her grasp, left alone and tracked by forces unimaginable, they are obligated to face their inner demons while the clock relentlessly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and alliances crack, compelling each member to question their self and the idea of free will itself. The cost mount with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that combines otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken ancestral fear, an entity before modern man, influencing mental cracks, and exposing a being that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra required summoning something outside normal anguish. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers everywhere can dive into this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to survive these terrifying truths about the mind.


For sneak peeks, special features, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: 2025 stateside slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in biblical myth and stretching into series comebacks together with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most stratified as well as intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios bookend the months with known properties, while SVOD players saturate the fall with debut heat together with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the independent cohort is buoyed by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 overinflated mythology. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 fright cycle: brand plays, new stories, plus A packed Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The new terror season crams right away with a January traffic jam, then flows through June and July, and running into the winter holidays, marrying brand heft, original angles, and data-minded counterprogramming. The major players are doubling down on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that frame genre releases into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has solidified as the consistent play in studio calendars, a corner that can surge when it connects and still limit the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to decision-makers that cost-conscious genre plays can lead the national conversation, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The run fed into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for different modes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that export nicely. The end result for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across studios, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of brand names and new concepts, and a sharpened stance on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the space now serves as a utility player on the calendar. Horror can launch on virtually any date, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and over-index with moviegoers that respond on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the title delivers. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates trust in that playbook. The slate begins with a thick January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a fall corridor that reaches into All Hallows period and into post-Halloween. The grid also includes the greater integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and scale up at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is brand management across unified worlds and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that threads a next film to a initial period. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the top original plays are Get More Info celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and vivid settings. That blend offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a throwback-friendly approach without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign centered on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, tragic, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny live moments and brief clips that mixes affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are branded as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror jolt that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of precision releases and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which fit with fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month ends 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 serious, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 loss-struck man’s intelligent companion mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that refracts terror through a preteen’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Expect a healthy 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and visuals 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.