Mythic Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

One spine-tingling ghostly fright fest from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten horror when passersby become victims in a dark contest. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of overcoming and archaic horror that will transform the horror genre this season. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie screenplay follows five people who snap to caught in a wilderness-bound structure under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Be warned to be gripped by a narrative outing that unites raw fear with folklore, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a enduring narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the spirits no longer arise from beyond, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the most sinister dimension of the players. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the events becomes a unforgiving face-off between purity and corruption.


In a bleak landscape, five characters find themselves isolated under the ghastly presence and haunting of a shadowy woman. As the victims becomes paralyzed to fight her curse, abandoned and followed by powers unnamable, they are obligated to endure their soulful dreads while the hours harrowingly pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease escalates and friendships disintegrate, pressuring each figure to evaluate their being and the idea of self-determination itself. The cost grow with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to evoke basic terror, an power that existed before mankind, manipulating emotional fractures, and highlighting a curse that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that turn is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering viewers internationally can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its initial teaser, which has collected over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this life-altering journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and news from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses old-world possession, independent shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Moving from life-or-death fear drawn from scriptural legend and onward to IP renewals as well as focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the richest along with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, as subscription platforms flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

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

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed 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 nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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



The coming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, original films, and also A brimming Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The new horror cycle clusters in short order with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the holidays, blending legacy muscle, creative pitches, and data-minded alternatives. The big buyers and platforms are relying on mid-range economics, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that turn horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has emerged as the steady release in annual schedules, a space that can break out when it connects and still limit the liability when it stumbles. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget chillers can shape the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The head of steam moved into 2025, where re-entries and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is room for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The aggregate for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across distributors, with obvious clusters, a mix of brand names and first-time concepts, and a re-energized priority on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and digital services.

Schedulers say the space now works like a plug-and-play option on the release plan. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, furnish a simple premise for marketing and short-form placements, and outpace with audiences that line up on Thursday previews and hold through the follow-up frame if the offering delivers. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence indicates comfort in that setup. The slate starts with a weighty January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a October build that pushes into spooky season and into the next week. The map also includes the deeper integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the timely point.

Another broad trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another return. They are seeking to position ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that suggests a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that threads a latest entry to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That mix delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and surprise, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a roots-evoking framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that shifts into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to recreate creepy live activations and snackable content that blurs devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s releases are positioned as filmmaker events, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has established that a in-your-face, in-camera leaning execution can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that leans into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror driven by minute detail and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that boosts both first-week urgency and sub growth in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, locking in horror entries tight to release and making event-like debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a staged of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a traditional cinema play for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The potential drawback, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add 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, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set illuminate the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a parallel release from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, allows marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind this year’s genre forecast a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which favor fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s virtual companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 Check This Out man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that explores the unease of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new clan entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 exploit those windows. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.