Primeval Evil Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streamers

A blood-curdling metaphysical nightmare movie from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old fear when unfamiliar people become pawns in a devilish maze. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping saga of overcoming and mythic evil that will revolutionize scare flicks this harvest season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric screenplay follows five lost souls who suddenly rise sealed in a far-off dwelling under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a ancient sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be drawn in by a audio-visual experience that fuses raw fear with biblical origins, hitting 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 historical foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the monsters no longer come externally, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the shadowy facet of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling inner struggle where the conflict becomes a brutal face-off between right and wrong.


In a desolate natural abyss, five adults find themselves cornered under the unholy sway and control of a uncanny figure. As the protagonists becomes powerless to evade her command, left alone and preyed upon by terrors inconceivable, they are required to stand before their greatest panics while the timeline without pause ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and alliances dissolve, demanding each soul to reconsider their existence and the notion of independent thought itself. The risk intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that integrates occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore basic terror, an evil beyond recorded history, operating within our weaknesses, and testing a force that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that watchers anywhere can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has received over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this visceral ride through nightmares. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For cast commentary, extra content, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts weaves archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Running from survivor-centric dread infused with ancient scripture and including IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified along with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors bookend the months via recognizable brands, in tandem streaming platforms crowd the fall with fresh voices paired with mythic dread. On another front, independent banners is surfing the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate lights the fuse with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, 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 initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode 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.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 fright slate: returning titles, new stories, together with A packed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek: The emerging horror slate lines up in short order with a January glut, thereafter unfolds through midyear, and carrying into the holiday stretch, balancing series momentum, original angles, and data-minded counterweight. The major players are focusing on responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that position horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the dependable option in annual schedules, a corner that can accelerate when it performs and still safeguard the liability when it stumbles. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can dominate cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam carried into 2025, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers proved there is a lane for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that scale internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across studios, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new pitches, and a renewed focus on exhibition windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and SVOD.

Marketers add the space now serves as a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, deliver a easy sell for creative and reels, and over-index with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the title connects. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration signals comfort in that logic. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that flows toward Halloween and afterwards. The program also reflects the greater integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and established properties. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a tonal shift or a star attachment that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That mix provides 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a throwback-friendly strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that becomes a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate odd public stunts and short reels that fuses intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, makeup-driven mix can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake 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 Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed content with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is steady enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and expand the canvas. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror indicate a continued emphasis on hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is busy. 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 big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-game 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the control balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that threads the dread through a child’s unsteady POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated 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 landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 click site and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, 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 grain, soundcraft, 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.

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.