Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering October 2025 across premium platforms

One bone-chilling unearthly scare-fest from writer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic terror when foreigners become pawns in a supernatural ordeal. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of staying alive and forgotten curse that will alter scare flicks this ghoul season. Helmed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic fearfest follows five figures who snap to ensnared in a cut-off shelter under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a haunted figure overtaken by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be seized by a screen-based venture that unites bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the malevolences no longer come outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most sinister facet of every character. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the plotline becomes a brutal push-pull between virtue and vice.


In a bleak forest, five figures find themselves marooned under the malevolent grip and haunting of a mysterious woman. As the cast becomes submissive to break her will, left alone and hunted by terrors indescribable, they are forced to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the time coldly ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and friendships collapse, compelling each member to doubt their character and the foundation of self-determination itself. The cost accelerate with every tick, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken instinctual horror, an evil beyond time, manipulating our weaknesses, and challenging a curse that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is clueless until the entity awakens, and that pivot is shocking because it is so close.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing audiences in all regions can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this heart-stopping descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to dive into these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For director insights, production insights, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s sea change: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, stacked beside IP aftershocks

From survivor-centric dread infused with legendary theology and onward to canon extensions set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, in parallel digital services prime the fall with discovery plays set against ancient terrors. On the festival side, the independent cohort is propelled by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are exacting, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone 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. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

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

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new scare Year Ahead: brand plays, Originals, plus A jammed Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek: The current genre slate packs up front with a January wave, subsequently rolls through the warm months, and running into the holiday stretch, marrying franchise firepower, novel approaches, and well-timed alternatives. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn horror entries into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has emerged as the dependable swing in release strategies, a corner that can spike when it lands and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that efficiently budgeted scare machines can drive the national conversation, the following year carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is a market for a variety of tones, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that travel well. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a lineup that appears tightly organized across the field, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new packages, and a refocused commitment on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now operates like a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can premiere on virtually any date, supply a clear pitch for teasers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with demo groups that appear on first-look nights and stick through the week two if the movie satisfies. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar launches with a loaded January band, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and past Halloween. The calendar also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and move wide at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just making another entry. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that conveys a new tone or a lead change that binds a fresh chapter to a early run. At the meanwhile, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing physical effects work, on-set effects and concrete locations. That combination gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of familiarity and discovery, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a memory-charged angle without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign driven by heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer alternative, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that becomes a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate eerie street stunts and quick hits that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has established that a visceral, makeup-driven execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can lift large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that enhances both FOMO and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using timely promos, October hubs, and curated strips to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing Check This Out forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Recent comps outline the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which favor booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 thick, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 unyielding boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that twists the fear of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-financed and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. 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 period language and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 value-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 exploit those windows. 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. 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sonics, and visual design 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, Lined Up To Scare

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.