Mythic Horror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

An blood-curdling metaphysical suspense film from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric terror when outsiders become tools in a fiendish experiment. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of staying alive and timeless dread that will revamp the horror genre this October. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody thriller follows five unacquainted souls who wake up trapped in a remote structure under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a young woman occupied by a timeless sacred-era entity. Prepare to be captivated by a motion picture experience that weaves together primitive horror with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the monsters no longer arise outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This suggests the malevolent aspect of the group. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the events becomes a intense push-pull between light and darkness.


In a isolated woodland, five young people find themselves cornered under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a uncanny being. As the team becomes incapable to fight her rule, severed and tracked by forces unnamable, they are required to face their deepest fears while the seconds brutally ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread escalates and teams splinter, coercing each character to contemplate their values and the integrity of independent thought itself. The danger magnify with every short lapse, delivering a chilling narrative that fuses ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into core terror, an entity that predates humanity, emerging via mental cracks, and questioning a presence that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure watchers from coast to coast can get immersed in this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Tune in for this mind-warping fall into madness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these haunting secrets about existence.


For previews, director cuts, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

From survival horror saturated with scriptural legend and including returning series as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered paired with tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners are anchoring the year using marquee IP, in parallel streaming platforms load up the fall with unboxed visions in concert with ancestral chills. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is drafting behind the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into 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. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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 looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

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

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts 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.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fear year to come: next chapters, non-franchise titles, plus A packed Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The incoming terror year crams in short order with a January cluster, following that stretches through the mid-year, and carrying into the late-year period, balancing brand equity, novel approaches, and smart counterplay. Studios and platforms are leaning into tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that convert horror entries into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent tool in studio slates, a genre that can expand when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can steer audience talk, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and elevated films signaled there is capacity for varied styles, from continued chapters to director-led originals that scale internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that shows rare alignment across distributors, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a recommitted priority on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the space now slots in as a versatile piece on the distribution slate. The genre can launch on nearly any frame, offer a easy sell for previews and TikTok spots, and overperform with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday previews and stay strong through the week two if the entry works. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm underscores trust in that setup. The calendar commences with a busy January band, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a autumn stretch that extends to spooky season and afterwards. The layout also features the expanded integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just pushing another next film. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that signals a tonal shift or a casting move that reconnects a latest entry to a initial period. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, practical effects and concrete locations. That fusion yields 2026 a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a classic-referencing framework without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets 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 official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to own 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, makeup-driven approach can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shot that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that elevates both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and staff picks to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival additions, securing horror entries near launch and making event-like rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a staged of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters have a peek at this web-site January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to broaden. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Look for 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 together, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the assembly is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not block a day-date try from working when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind these films forecast a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. 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 loss-struck man’s AI companion shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 in-home haunting chiller that explores the fright of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: TBD. 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 back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. 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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, 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 optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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 flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 dimensionality, soundscape, 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 Get More Info fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.