Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One terrifying occult fear-driven tale from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless terror when drifters become tokens in a diabolical ordeal. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of survival and mythic evil that will reimagine the horror genre this season. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic thriller follows five strangers who find themselves stuck in a far-off hideaway under the hostile control of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a antiquated holy text monster. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a motion picture journey that fuses soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is challenged when the demons no longer appear outside the characters, but rather inside them. This mirrors the shadowy version of all involved. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a unyielding battle between light and darkness.


In a bleak terrain, five teens find themselves caught under the sinister force and overtake of a elusive entity. As the youths becomes unresisting to deny her control, cut off and pursued by terrors inconceivable, they are confronted to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the seconds coldly winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and relationships shatter, driving each cast member to question their values and the nature of decision-making itself. The threat surge with every instant, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover ancestral fear, an power born of forgotten ages, manipulating human fragility, and highlighting a being that dismantles free will when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is eerie because it is so internal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users everywhere can dive into this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, taking the terror to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this visceral trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these unholy truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, making-of footage, and updates from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 American release plan fuses biblical-possession ideas, Indie Shockers, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from life-or-death fear infused with ancient scripture all the way to brand-name continuations paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified together with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, as subscription platforms crowd the fall with fresh voices plus mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is surfing the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 fright calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, and also A packed Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The emerging genre slate crams up front with a January wave, after that spreads through summer, and far into the holiday stretch, marrying name recognition, inventive spins, and well-timed counterprogramming. The major players are relying on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that pivot these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror has established itself as the dependable release in release plans, a genre that can break out when it resonates and still buffer the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year demonstrated to leaders that lean-budget scare machines can drive mainstream conversation, the following year kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The run carried into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings underscored there is a market for a variety of tones, from returning installments to director-led originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of household franchises and new packages, and a sharpened commitment on release windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can kick off on most weekends, provide a easy sell for teasers and shorts, and lead with patrons that lean in on previews Thursday and stick through the subsequent weekend if the release hits. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm underscores certainty in that approach. The year rolls out with a loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that pushes into All Hallows period and afterwards. The calendar also spotlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and digital platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the proper time.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. Major shops are not just rolling another sequel. They are moving to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a latest entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to practical craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That blend affords the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a classic-referencing framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in brand visuals, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an AI companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and brief clips that interlaces intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are framed as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to lead 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, physical-effects centered mix can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror shock that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, keeping a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival buys, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of precision releases and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Plan on 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and navigate to this website legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 produced back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind these films point to a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the control balance shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller 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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 in-home haunting tale that leverages the fear of a child’s fragile point of view. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

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 satirical comeback that skewers modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll 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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are set in 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 value-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 pace and range. January is a spread, 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 goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions 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 respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundcraft, and cinematography 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.