Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

One haunting unearthly scare-fest from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient force when drifters become vehicles in a satanic struggle. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of living through and timeless dread that will reconstruct horror this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric film follows five lost souls who regain consciousness ensnared in a off-grid shelter under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a timeless religious nightmare. Prepare to be seized by a motion picture journey that unites deep-seated panic with timeless legends, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the fiends no longer emerge from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the grimmest layer of these individuals. The result is a relentless mind game where the drama becomes a relentless confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a abandoned landscape, five young people find themselves marooned under the fiendish force and curse of a mysterious female figure. As the companions becomes vulnerable to reject her dominion, detached and targeted by forces unfathomable, they are confronted to wrestle with their deepest fears while the time mercilessly moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and connections break, pushing each figure to examine their essence and the integrity of independent thought itself. The danger amplify with every second, delivering a horror experience that combines otherworldly suspense with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore primal fear, an malevolence beyond recorded history, filtering through psychological breaks, and challenging a force that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that evolution is haunting because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that customers globally can enjoy this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first trailer, which has seen over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to horror fans worldwide.


Witness this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these spiritual awakenings about our species.


For film updates, on-set glimpses, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





The horror genre’s major pivot: calendar year 2025 U.S. Slate melds old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, plus legacy-brand quakes

Moving from last-stand terror suffused with ancient scripture to returning series paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated combined with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, concurrently streamers prime the fall with new voices set against mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is propelled by the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching spook lineup: Sequels, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar engineered for frights

Dek The current scare year lines up immediately with a January logjam, then carries through the summer months, and carrying into the December corridor, marrying series momentum, novel approaches, and smart counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has become the surest release in studio calendars, a pillar that can expand when it breaks through and still buffer the floor when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to studio brass that cost-conscious fright engines can lead the discourse, the following year carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films proved there is room for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a slate that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with mapped-out bands, a balance of established brands and new packages, and a renewed emphasis on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Distribution heads claim the space now functions as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can arrive on many corridors, furnish a grabby hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and over-index with demo groups that lean in on first-look nights and sustain through the next pass if the release lands. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs confidence in that logic. The calendar begins with a stacked January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that reaches into late October and into the next week. The layout also reflects the tightening integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and widen at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a next film to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are prioritizing practical craft, real effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and invention, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a throwback-friendly angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout centered on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-first strategy can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that enhances both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival snaps, slotting horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate 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 runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. get redirected here Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

The last three-year set frame the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to link the films through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films telegraph a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre imp source diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 in-home haunting story that interrogates the dread of a child’s fragile POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family caught in returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 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. Expect a healthy 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.