Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across major streaming services

A bone-chilling metaphysical horror tale from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old terror when foreigners become conduits in a supernatural maze. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of staying alive and primordial malevolence that will alter terror storytelling this season. Brought to life by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive suspense flick follows five people who suddenly rise ensnared in a cut-off structure under the menacing influence of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a legendary sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be drawn in by a screen-based presentation that melds bodily fright with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring pillar in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the spirits no longer arise outside the characters, but rather from their core. This suggests the most terrifying version of all involved. The result is a gripping moral showdown where the emotions becomes a brutal confrontation between light and darkness.


In a isolated natural abyss, five campers find themselves stuck under the possessive sway and grasp of a obscure spirit. As the characters becomes incapacitated to resist her will, abandoned and pursued by spirits inconceivable, they are thrust to confront their emotional phantoms while the final hour without pause winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and teams crack, demanding each person to challenge their personhood and the principle of liberty itself. The risk climb with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges occult fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into ancestral fear, an curse beyond recorded history, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and confronting a entity that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring viewers worldwide can watch this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Be sure to catch this cinematic trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these unholy truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar weaves ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, together with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with scriptural legend and including canon extensions together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified as well as intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year through proven series, concurrently premium streamers crowd the fall with emerging auteurs and ancestral chills. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is surfing the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped 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 the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by 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.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. 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. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new 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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming chiller slate: installments, non-franchise titles, paired with A stacked Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The fresh genre slate clusters up front with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through midyear, and far into the holiday stretch, blending legacy muscle, new concepts, and strategic calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has proven to be the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can spike when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it falls short. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that mid-range horror vehicles can galvanize pop culture, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The trend rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films signaled there is a market for several lanes, from series extensions to non-IP projects that travel well. The sum for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with strategic blocks, a spread of known properties and original hooks, and a refocused priority on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and home streaming.

Executives say the space now acts as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can bow on numerous frames, provide a easy sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and outperform with fans that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the picture fires. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm indicates conviction in that engine. The slate kicks off with a busy January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a October build that runs into the fright window and beyond. The calendar also highlights the continuing integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and move wide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just pushing another follow-up. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a new vibe or a casting move that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, in-camera effects and distinct locales. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two headline bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning bent without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave centered on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early movies 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that becomes a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-form creative that threads longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up 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 official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are set up as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, practical-effects forward approach can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is calling a new take 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 focus to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around lore, and creature builds, elements that can boost format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in careful craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed films with cross-border buys and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and framing as events launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a paired of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to secure select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber Get More Info stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two IP plays. 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 atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, 2026 bends toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind this year’s genre hint at a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month wraps 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 thick, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 prickly boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that manipulates the fear of a child’s wobbly impressions. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 flares, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed 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 beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the Young & Cursed prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-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 exploit 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and imagery 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 adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.