Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

One eerie supernatural shockfest from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an ancient malevolence when strangers become puppets in a supernatural experiment. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of endurance and prehistoric entity that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Produced by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic fearfest follows five young adults who suddenly rise sealed in a cut-off wooden structure under the malignant will of Kyra, a haunted figure occupied by a legendary religious nightmare. Be warned to be hooked by a theatrical display that melds raw fear with timeless legends, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the beings no longer form from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This embodies the grimmest dimension of these individuals. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the tension becomes a brutal conflict between moral forces.


In a forsaken wilderness, five adults find themselves stuck under the ghastly grip and control of a unknown apparition. As the survivors becomes vulnerable to break her dominion, abandoned and followed by beings beyond comprehension, they are required to confront their darkest emotions while the deathwatch coldly runs out toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and links crack, requiring each figure to reconsider their values and the idea of volition itself. The danger magnify with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that combines occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke primal fear, an darkness beyond time, feeding on human fragility, and challenging a being that strips down our being when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing fans worldwide can enjoy this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has racked up over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this haunted exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to acknowledge these nightmarish insights about our species.


For previews, production news, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts integrates ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, plus franchise surges

Running from survival horror saturated with scriptural legend and including returning series together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the richest paired with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios are anchoring the year with established lines, concurrently digital services prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus ancestral chills. On another front, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 fright season: returning titles, universe starters, plus A brimming Calendar Built For chills

Dek The emerging scare cycle stacks immediately with a January glut, subsequently stretches through the summer months, and straight through the year-end corridor, braiding IP strength, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that convert these pictures into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror has proven to be the most reliable lever in studio calendars, a vertical that can grow when it resonates and still safeguard the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that disciplined-budget fright engines can own social chatter, 2024 held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of brand names and new pitches, and a renewed focus on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and platforms.

Executives say the space now works like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, create a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that show up on preview nights and hold through the second frame if the offering satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a October build that runs into the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The calendar also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and classic IP. Big banners are not just releasing another sequel. They are working to present story carry-over with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a cast configuration that reconnects a latest entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating real-world builds, real effects and site-specific worlds. That mix hands the 2026 slate a strong blend of comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two headline pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a nostalgia-forward approach without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on brand visuals, first images of characters, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short reels that mixes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal 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 allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants imp source on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is presenting as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around mythos, and creature design, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by minute detail and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that amplifies both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the later window. Prime Video combines library titles with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival deals, securing horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops releases with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of precision releases and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is steady enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps announce the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 serious, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 family-home haunting setup that frames the panic through a young child’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and toplined supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set 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 spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. 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 elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 chase 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 capitalize on those pockets. 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 momentum and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, 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 grain, aural design, and framing 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 Shapes Up Strong

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.