Ancient Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

This haunting unearthly suspense story from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an age-old terror when guests become proxies in a dark ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of continuance and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize the horror genre this season. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy feature follows five characters who wake up confined in a wilderness-bound cottage under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a biblical-era biblical demon. Prepare to be absorbed by a narrative experience that fuses deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the fiends no longer originate outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the grimmest corner of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a relentless battle between good and evil.


In a isolated terrain, five friends find themselves cornered under the sinister force and control of a obscure female figure. As the protagonists becomes submissive to oppose her power, stranded and pursued by presences mind-shattering, they are cornered to battle their inner horrors while the final hour unforgivingly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and alliances dissolve, pushing each character to question their personhood and the structure of conscious will itself. The intensity surge with every short lapse, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that marries unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel elemental fright, an threat from prehistory, filtering through soul-level flaws, and wrestling with a darkness that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that flip is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers anywhere can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its intro video, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this mind-warping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For film updates, extra content, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets stateside slate fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Moving from survivor-centric dread suffused with legendary theology and extending to returning series set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as the richest as well as blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners lay down anchors through proven series, in tandem digital services front-load the fall with debut heat as well as legend-coded dread. On the festival side, independent banners is drafting behind the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching terror season: entries, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The arriving horror calendar crams up front with a January pile-up, from there carries through midyear, and carrying into the late-year period, braiding series momentum, new concepts, and smart counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that shape these pictures into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has grown into the sturdy move in annual schedules, a vertical that can lift when it performs and still hedge the losses when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reassured executives that mid-range shockers can drive audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The energy rolled into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays proved there is a market for a spectrum, from returning installments to original features that perform internationally. The result for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across players, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted attention on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can open on open real estate, supply a simple premise for ad units and social clips, and over-index with fans that arrive on first-look nights and stick through the next pass if the entry works. Coming out of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates conviction in that equation. The year launches with a stacked January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The gridline also underscores the deeper integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and grow at the timely point.

An added macro current is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just turning out another sequel. They are aiming to frame lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that flags a new vibe or a lead change that connects a next film to a foundational era. At the same time, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are returning to material texture, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That mix produces 2026 a solid mix of comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a classic-referencing treatment without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout rooted in signature symbols, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is straightforward, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to renew strange in-person beats and micro spots that fuses affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a raw, hands-on effects execution can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a reset 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 explicit mandate to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that elevates both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival pickups, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and positioning as event drops premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of selective theatrical runs and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building 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 pitch is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for auteur 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 commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Be ready 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 as partners, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not deter a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month ends 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 real, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop 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 finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. 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 bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at this contact form Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that interrogates the dread of a child’s inconsistent POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll 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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family linked to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, 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.

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the scares sell the seats.