Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

A frightening spectral terror film from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten nightmare when passersby become pawns in a demonic game. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of resilience and forgotten curse that will redefine scare flicks this cool-weather season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody story follows five individuals who snap to stranded in a far-off hideaway under the malevolent sway of Kyra, a possessed female dominated by a time-worn religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be captivated by a screen-based adventure that integrates deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring motif in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the beings no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather internally. This embodies the deepest version of all involved. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the tension becomes a ongoing conflict between purity and corruption.


In a bleak wild, five young people find themselves caught under the malevolent aura and possession of a uncanny woman. As the protagonists becomes unable to fight her will, abandoned and chased by unknowns unimaginable, they are confronted to encounter their soulful dreads while the final hour brutally strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and links crack, forcing each survivor to contemplate their self and the idea of personal agency itself. The danger accelerate with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke ancestral fear, an spirit beyond recorded history, working through psychological breaks, and challenging a darkness that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra needed manifesting something darker than pain. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that conversion is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users worldwide can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


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


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these haunting secrets about mankind.


For teasers, making-of footage, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. calendar interlaces biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, together with brand-name tremors

Beginning with endurance-driven terror grounded in scriptural legend and onward to franchise returns as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured as well as tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios hold down the year with established lines, concurrently streamers saturate the fall with fresh voices paired with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is drafting behind the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp starts the year with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet including 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 lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by 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. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

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

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, 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.

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

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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



The forthcoming 2026 fear slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, together with A packed Calendar designed for screams

Dek The arriving horror slate lines up at the outset with a January crush, and then flows through midyear, and pushing into the holiday stretch, balancing series momentum, inventive spins, and savvy counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are committing to responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has proven to be the predictable release in release strategies, a pillar that can surge when it catches and still safeguard the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded buyers that efficiently budgeted fright engines can lead audience talk, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The energy rolled into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films signaled there is space for many shades, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of familiar brands and original hooks, and a reinvigorated commitment on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a schedule utility on the grid. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, furnish a tight logline for spots and TikTok spots, and over-index with moviegoers that arrive on preview nights and stick through the week two if the offering connects. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout exhibits conviction in that logic. The slate begins with a thick January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also shows the deeper integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just greenlighting another entry. They are working to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new vibe or a lead change that ties a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on real-world builds, physical gags and concrete locations. That blend offers 2026 a confident blend of comfort and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a memory-charged strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are branded as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror hit that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can increase premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and making event-like releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a parallel release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered 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 performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month caps 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 real, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner grows into something fatal and romantic. 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 isolated island as the power balance of power reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to horror, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that interrogates the fright of a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: have a peek at these guys pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 breakout 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The click to read more Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. 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 track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job Get More Info is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.