Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

A hair-raising spectral scare-fest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric force when strangers become victims in a devilish ritual. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful account of endurance and forgotten curse that will redefine genre cinema this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric film follows five teens who arise stranded in a hidden cottage under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a legendary biblical demon. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a immersive adventure that fuses bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is inverted when the forces no longer come from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This echoes the most terrifying element of each of them. The result is a riveting mental war where the drama becomes a ongoing struggle between moral forces.


In a abandoned backcountry, five teens find themselves isolated under the sinister dominion and domination of a mysterious entity. As the team becomes incapable to fight her manipulation, left alone and targeted by forces beyond comprehension, they are obligated to endure their soulful dreads while the clock brutally strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and friendships shatter, driving each figure to examine their being and the concept of self-determination itself. The risk accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that connects otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon deep fear, an spirit older than civilization itself, emerging via our fears, and highlighting a evil that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that change is harrowing because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing horror lovers globally can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this mind-warping exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these chilling revelations about human nature.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Horror’s sea change: the year 2025 stateside slate interlaces legend-infused possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with brand-name tremors

Kicking off with survival horror grounded in old testament echoes through to canon extensions alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the richest along with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios set cornerstones using marquee IP, even as digital services crowd the fall with new perspectives alongside primordial unease. On another front, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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 looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

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. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new terror season: follow-ups, Originals, And A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek The fresh genre season stacks at the outset with a January bottleneck, subsequently unfolds through summer, and pushing into the holidays, blending brand equity, untold stories, and calculated release strategy. Studios and streamers are leaning into cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that elevate genre releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

The field has turned into the predictable option in release plans, a pillar that can spike when it connects and still safeguard the exposure when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can steer social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays showed there is a market for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with defined corridors, a harmony of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened strategy on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and home streaming.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a utility player on the distribution slate. The genre can open on open real estate, yield a simple premise for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with audiences that show up on early shows and sustain through the week two if the movie fires. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping demonstrates comfort in that setup. The calendar launches with a thick January window, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a September to October window that carries into late October and beyond. The arrangement also highlights the greater integration of indie arms and streamers that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and grow at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. Big banners are not just pushing another return. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a new tone or a casting move that threads a new installment to a vintage era. At the same time, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That fusion provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of home base and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two prominent bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a heritage-honoring treatment without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected fueled by heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew uncanny live moments and quick hits that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are set up as director events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led strategy can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a new foundation 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 fans and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed films with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming 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+ cherry-picks horror on a curated basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is known enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to useful reference be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 severe boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that frames the panic through a little one’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family lashed to returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. 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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 exploit 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, lean footprints, 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 materiality, sound, and framing 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 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.