Antediluvian Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

This blood-curdling unearthly fright fest from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old malevolence when guests become conduits in a supernatural game. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of resilience and timeless dread that will reimagine scare flicks this spooky time. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five people who wake up isolated in a remote cottage under the menacing command of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a legendary sacred-era entity. Prepare to be seized by a filmic presentation that fuses instinctive fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the spirits no longer manifest externally, but rather through their own souls. This marks the deepest corner of the group. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the intensity becomes a unyielding fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate wild, five friends find themselves isolated under the fiendish grip and overtake of a mysterious spirit. As the team becomes incapable to fight her rule, severed and tracked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are thrust to acknowledge their core terrors while the hours mercilessly runs out toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease escalates and alliances dissolve, requiring each individual to evaluate their being and the concept of decision-making itself. The intensity surge with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes ghostly evil with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon primitive panic, an spirit that predates humanity, filtering through human fragility, and wrestling with a presence that challenges autonomy when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is eerie because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that viewers everywhere can be part of this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has pulled in over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this visceral fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these unholy truths about inner darkness.


For featurettes, set experiences, and news via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses legend-infused possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror suffused with ancient scripture as well as IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured and precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently streaming platforms front-load the fall with new voices together with ancestral chills. At the same time, indie storytellers is surfing the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

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

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops 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.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear release year: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh scare cycle lines up from day one with a January bottleneck, before it stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, braiding brand equity, creative pitches, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that position these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has become the steady move in annual schedules, a corner that can lift when it performs and still safeguard the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that mid-range genre plays can own the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is space for multiple flavors, from returning installments to original one-offs that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across players, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a recommitted commitment on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now operates like a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can bow on most weekends, deliver a tight logline for spots and reels, and overperform with crowds that arrive on preview nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the title connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates conviction in that setup. The year rolls out with a weighty January run, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The map also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can platform a title, grow buzz, and grow at the timely point.

A second macro trend is brand curation across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. Big banners are not just pushing another entry. They are setting up brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that announces a new tone or a casting pivot that links a upcoming film to a initial period. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to practical craft, in-camera effects and specific settings. That mix gives 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. 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 character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that mixes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger click site tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward approach can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and community activity.

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 sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances licensed titles with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not block a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The this content dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued lean toward material, place-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 wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led 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 claw to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting piece that pipes the unease through a youth’s unreliable POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 fuel talk and ticketing 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 endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and imagery 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.