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

An chilling spectral shockfest from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval entity when outsiders become puppets in a malevolent ordeal. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching saga of living through and prehistoric entity that will reshape terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves locked in a far-off wooden structure under the menacing influence of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a ancient sacred-era entity. Be warned to be absorbed by a visual ride that merges gut-punch terror with folklore, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the spirits no longer come from an outside force, but rather inside them. This represents the deepest aspect of the players. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a constant fight between right and wrong.


In a forsaken wilderness, five campers find themselves contained under the sinister sway and control of a unknown entity. As the youths becomes incapable to evade her power, left alone and chased by spirits indescribable, they are made to battle their soulful dreads while the timeline without pity edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and relationships disintegrate, requiring each individual to contemplate their character and the idea of personal agency itself. The risk accelerate with every beat, delivering a horror experience that connects supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to evoke elemental fright, an threat born of forgotten ages, feeding on mental cracks, and questioning a being that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering streamers around the globe can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this heart-stopping fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these haunting secrets about human nature.


For previews, extra content, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar weaves primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, plus franchise surges

Kicking off with last-stand terror drawn from mythic scripture and onward to returning series as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most complex and intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously streaming platforms prime the fall with discovery plays together with ancestral chills. At the same time, the art-house flank is fueled by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching Horror slate: Sequels, filmmaker-first projects, together with A jammed Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The new terror calendar builds from the jump with a January glut, after that spreads through the mid-year, and carrying into the holiday frame, fusing brand equity, creative pitches, and tactical alternatives. Studios with streamers are betting on smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has solidified as the surest release in programming grids, a genre that can accelerate when it breaks through and still buffer the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year reminded top brass that cost-conscious fright engines can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The upswing pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and elevated films proved there is capacity for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a programming that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with intentional bunching, a balance of recognizable IP and novel angles, and a tightened strategy on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Planners observe the horror lane now behaves like a utility player on the grid. The genre can premiere on open real estate, yield a quick sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and over-index with ticket buyers that appear on first-look nights and continue through the next pass if the entry connects. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup signals certainty in that approach. The year rolls out with a heavy January run, then uses spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a fall run that flows toward the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The calendar also underscores the deeper integration of specialty distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just pushing another entry. They are seeking to position lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That fusion hands 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a rootsy character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance hints at a nostalgia-forward treatment without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push centered on classic imagery, early character teases, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to renew uncanny live moments and snackable content that hybridizes longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are sold as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins 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, practical-effects forward mix can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a red-band summer horror surge that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and collection rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a staged of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 in parallel, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and grow scope. 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 filmed consecutively, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil great post to read Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The 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 red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning horror to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss work to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting piece that twists the fear of a child’s fragile POV. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and star-fronted paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family linked to past horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage get redirected here of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set 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 warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and camera work 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 Looks Exciting

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.