Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

A haunting paranormal suspense film from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an archaic dread when outsiders become puppets in a satanic maze. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of struggle and old world terror that will alter terror storytelling this season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy thriller follows five figures who are stirred confined in a far-off dwelling under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a possessed female claimed by a ancient religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be seized by a audio-visual outing that integrates instinctive fear with ancient myths, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the presences no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather internally. This suggests the most terrifying version of these individuals. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the events becomes a unyielding clash between light and darkness.


In a desolate forest, five young people find themselves marooned under the possessive force and haunting of a unknown character. As the survivors becomes incapacitated to fight her grasp, left alone and tormented by spirits mind-shattering, they are made to deal with their worst nightmares while the clock unceasingly moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread amplifies and partnerships shatter, coercing each protagonist to contemplate their identity and the principle of freedom of choice itself. The intensity mount with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that connects supernatural terror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel elemental fright, an force that existed before mankind, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and confronting a spirit that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving fans from coast to coast can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, offering the tale to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this gripping descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these evil-rooted truths about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, director cuts, and insider scoops from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. lineup melds myth-forward possession, underground frights, and Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survival horror rooted in mythic scripture as well as series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex in tandem with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors lock in tentpoles through proven series, concurrently OTT services load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and primordial unease. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is carried on the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

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

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 a smart play. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, 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 title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fright release year: continuations, fresh concepts, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at Scares

Dek The brand-new scare cycle loads immediately with a January bottleneck, and then runs through summer corridors, and running into the winter holidays, marrying franchise firepower, untold stories, and smart release strategy. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that pivot genre titles into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has emerged as the steady play in studio calendars, a lane that can break out when it lands and still insulate the risk when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured buyers that mid-range shockers can own the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The carry carried into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries highlighted there is a market for several lanes, from legacy continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across distributors, with strategic blocks, a balance of familiar brands and novel angles, and a re-energized strategy on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the horror lane now behaves like a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on most weekends, yield a clear pitch for marketing and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with viewers that turn out on early shows and maintain momentum through the next pass if the release lands. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects comfort in that model. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January band, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a September to October window that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The program also illustrates the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and widen at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is franchise tending across shared IP webs and established properties. Studio teams are not just producing another next film. They are aiming to frame lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting move that connects a next film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical gags and grounded locations. That alloy gives 2026 a confident blend of recognition and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two spotlight entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a legacy-leaning approach without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push driven by recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever shapes trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that hybridizes companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are treated as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, physical-effects centered method can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s useful reference horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has changed the date 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 reboots in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to launch and eventizing arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the team and cast is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps announce the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 shot consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which favor convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to have a peek at these guys be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch this website feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that refracts terror through a youth’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.