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

One frightening supernatural thriller from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic fear when newcomers become puppets in a demonic contest. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of continuance and mythic evil that will resculpt terror storytelling this October. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic feature follows five strangers who snap to locked in a remote structure under the menacing manipulation of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a legendary biblical demon. Be prepared to be enthralled by a screen-based spectacle that unites gut-punch terror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a long-standing element in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the dark entities no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This marks the haunting shade of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a unforgiving terrain, five youths find themselves contained under the unholy influence and grasp of a shadowy apparition. As the protagonists becomes incapacitated to withstand her grasp, severed and hunted by spirits beyond comprehension, they are obligated to deal with their inner demons while the timeline without pause moves toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety mounts and connections splinter, pressuring each protagonist to rethink their identity and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The cost rise with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that weaves together occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover pure dread, an threat from prehistory, filtering through emotional fractures, and confronting a power that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers from coast to coast can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this gripping journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For film updates, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle American release plan Mixes biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, plus returning-series thunder

Running from survival horror grounded in old testament echoes as well as legacy revivals in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered along with deliberate year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios hold down the year using marquee IP, even as SVOD players flood the fall with new perspectives plus archetypal fear. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is drafting behind the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 scare slate: next chapters, universe starters, alongside A jammed Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The current horror calendar crams early with a January wave, thereafter unfolds through the mid-year, and continuing into the year-end corridor, fusing IP strength, new voices, and well-timed alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that pivot these films into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has shown itself to be the most reliable tool in programming grids, a segment that can lift when it hits and still buffer the drag when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that mid-range pictures can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The momentum carried into 2025, where reboots and awards-minded projects highlighted there is space for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a balance of brand names and new packages, and a reinvigorated attention on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on premium on-demand and home platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now performs as a flex slot on the distribution slate. Horror can debut on almost any weekend, deliver a easy sell for trailers and social clips, and outpace with audiences that line up on previews Thursday and maintain momentum through the week two if the picture hits. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 rhythm indicates assurance in that playbook. The calendar starts with a thick January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a September to October window that connects to All Hallows period and into early November. The program also includes the expanded integration of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a reframed mood or a lead change that anchors a new installment to a original cycle. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are championing material texture, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of trust and shock, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a throwback-friendly treatment without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected fueled by brand visuals, character previews, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie my company 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build mass reach through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an synthetic partner that escalates into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror strange in-person beats and micro spots that mixes devotion and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to command 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-effects forward mix can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around environmental design, and creature work, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 shaped by minute detail and textual fidelity, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Digital platform strategies

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, enables marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror indicate 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 aligns with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which play well in fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 abrasive boss push to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a little one’s shifting inner lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and A-list fronted spirit-world suspense.

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 comic send-up that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family entangled with old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: click site in progress. 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 era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and image-making 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 Shapes Up Strong

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus Source once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.