Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

This haunting unearthly fright fest from creator / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten dread when newcomers become instruments in a fiendish game. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of struggle and primordial malevolence that will remodel scare flicks this fall. Visualized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic fearfest follows five lost souls who regain consciousness locked in a far-off shelter under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a time-worn biblical force. Be warned to be drawn in by a visual outing that integrates raw fear with timeless legends, releasing 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 classic motif in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the spirits no longer descend externally, but rather internally. This echoes the haunting shade of the victims. The result is a gripping mind game where the plotline becomes a relentless clash between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate forest, five friends find themselves trapped under the malevolent force and haunting of a mysterious female presence. As the protagonists becomes helpless to combat her grasp, abandoned and tormented by forces mind-shattering, they are cornered to confront their greatest panics while the final hour mercilessly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and teams dissolve, driving each individual to evaluate their personhood and the philosophy of volition itself. The pressure surge with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken primal fear, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and challenging a entity that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the entity awakens, and that conversion is shocking because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing users worldwide can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these haunting secrets about mankind.


For cast commentary, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus domestic schedule blends legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, set against returning-series thunder

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with near-Eastern lore all the way to franchise returns plus acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most textured and calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, in tandem streamers crowd the fall with new voices together with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

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

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped 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 bloated canon. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
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 goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 fright cycle: Sequels, fresh concepts, plus A stacked Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek The new genre calendar loads immediately with a January traffic jam, following that rolls through the mid-year, and running into the holiday frame, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that position these films into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent option in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it clicks and still insulate the downside when it falls short. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that modestly budgeted scare machines can galvanize social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The run flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a calendar that presents tight coordination across companies, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of brand names and new concepts, and a reinvigorated attention on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium rental and digital services.

Executives say the category now functions as a fill-in ace on the calendar. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, generate a clean hook for marketing and short-form placements, and overperform with crowds that show up on preview nights and sustain through the second frame if the feature satisfies. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores faith in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a crowded January block, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while saving space for a autumn push that flows toward All Hallows period and into early November. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and broaden at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is series management across unified worlds and legacy IP. Major shops are not just releasing another next film. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a new tone or a cast configuration that bridges a upcoming film to a heyday. At the concurrently, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical effects and specific settings. That convergence delivers 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline pushes that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on classic imagery, early character teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, somber, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that shifts into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo uncanny live moments and snackable content that fuses devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, on-set effects led approach can feel big on a efficient spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror jolt that pushes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both initial urgency and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video balances licensed films with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using featured rows, fright rows, and staff picks to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech Get More Info hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit 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 cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores see here with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. 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 heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first 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 tough boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that routes the horror through a minor’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: major-studio and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on current genre trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top news cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited 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 harvest shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, acoustics, and cinematography 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.