Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked thriller, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An chilling unearthly terror film from narrative craftsman / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic nightmare when outsiders become tools in a demonic contest. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of survival and prehistoric entity that will remodel the horror genre this cool-weather season. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic feature follows five people who arise stranded in a far-off hideaway under the unfriendly sway of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Get ready to be seized by a cinematic spectacle that merges bone-deep fear with ancient myths, 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 legendary tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the demons no longer come outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the grimmest side of each of them. The result is a intense mental war where the narrative becomes a constant push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a bleak outland, five characters find themselves trapped under the dark presence and infestation of a shadowy being. As the characters becomes paralyzed to resist her rule, left alone and pursued by powers inconceivable, they are driven to endure their greatest panics while the final hour without pause winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and ties dissolve, pressuring each cast member to scrutinize their identity and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The stakes grow with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines demonic fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover primitive panic, an curse rooted in antiquity, filtering through fragile psyche, and dealing with a force that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering subscribers in all regions can get immersed in this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to witness these spiritual awakenings about the soul.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s major pivot: 2025 domestic schedule blends legend-infused possession, indie terrors, paired with returning-series thunder

Beginning with last-stand terror steeped in biblical myth and including canon extensions and surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified as well as precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with franchise anchors, as streaming platforms pack the fall with emerging auteurs alongside primordial unease. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. 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 one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming fright Year Ahead: brand plays, non-franchise titles, alongside A stacked Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The current genre slate packs from day one with a January crush, then carries through the mid-year, and well into the December corridor, marrying legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are leaning into responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and platform-native promos that frame these films into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has turned into the surest swing in annual schedules, a segment that can break out when it lands and still limit the drag when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to top brass that efficiently budgeted chillers can steer the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and unexpected risers. The carry extended into 2025, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers signaled there is a lane for a variety of tones, from series extensions to fresh IP that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with obvious clusters, a harmony of household franchises and new concepts, and a recommitted commitment on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on paid VOD and platforms.

Marketers add the category now behaves like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on many corridors, provide a clear pitch for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with fans that arrive on advance nights and return through the subsequent weekend if the feature works. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern signals certainty in that logic. The slate commences with a busy January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall run that reaches into spooky season and afterwards. The map also underscores the deeper integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can grow from platform, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another next film. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a refreshed voice or a lead change that links a upcoming film to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the top original plays are embracing on-set craft, real effects and distinct locales. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and novelty, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a fan-service aware treatment without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push driven by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that escalates into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that melds affection and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are presented as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend opens a lane to saturate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first method can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that leans into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can lift premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed content with world buys and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival deals, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the get redirected here original a cult classic, refined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Plan on 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 together, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not preclude a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which play well in booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into 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 slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that mediates the fear via a kid’s unreliable perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and star-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. 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 flares, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack 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 exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where midrange-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.