Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across leading streamers

An frightening supernatural suspense film from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial terror when strangers become vehicles in a dark ceremony. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping story of endurance and archaic horror that will reconstruct the horror genre this harvest season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody motion picture follows five teens who wake up ensnared in a far-off structure under the malevolent power of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Be warned to be immersed by a big screen adventure that combines intense horror with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a legendary tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is subverted when the entities no longer form from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most primal shade of all involved. The result is a harrowing mental war where the drama becomes a unforgiving struggle between virtue and vice.


In a remote landscape, five young people find themselves sealed under the sinister influence and domination of a unknown character. As the cast becomes incapable to oppose her will, stranded and targeted by powers unnamable, they are confronted to stand before their greatest panics while the deathwatch without pause runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and teams collapse, pushing each person to rethink their existence and the idea of self-determination itself. The stakes magnify with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken ancestral fear, an entity beyond time, operating within fragile psyche, and confronting a entity that dismantles free will when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing subscribers across the world can experience this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling ride through nightmares. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, special features, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts weaves legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, together with legacy-brand quakes

Spanning survival horror steeped in ancient scripture all the way to legacy revivals paired with focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most complex combined with precision-timed year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones via recognizable brands, simultaneously platform operators front-load the fall with discovery plays set against primordial unease. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: 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 formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped 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 canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. 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 fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans 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: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated 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 reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. 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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The approaching spook year to come: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, as well as A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek: The fresh horror calendar lines up from the jump with a January wave, and then flows through peak season, and well into the year-end corridor, weaving marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded release strategy. Studios with streamers are embracing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that convert these releases into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has established itself as the most reliable swing in release plans, a segment that can break out when it breaks through and still cushion the losses when it falls short. After 2023 re-taught studio brass that modestly budgeted fright engines can shape social chatter, the following year extended the rally with director-led heat and stealth successes. The energy translated to 2025, where returns and elevated films confirmed there is capacity for multiple flavors, from returning installments to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a roster that reads highly synchronized across studios, with defined corridors, a combination of legacy names and untested plays, and a renewed attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now functions as a schedule utility on the slate. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, deliver a clear pitch for spots and reels, and punch above weight with crowds that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the title lands. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping demonstrates faith in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a busy January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a fall corridor that flows toward late October and past Halloween. The schedule also spotlights the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and widen at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across ongoing universes and storied titles. Big banners are not just pushing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that suggests a re-angled tone or a casting move that anchors a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides 2026 a robust balance of known notes and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a heritage-honoring strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with brand visuals, early character teases, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that escalates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to echo strange in-person beats and brief clips that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy method can feel big on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fan-forward engagement.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on historical precision and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that enhances both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using timely promos, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival wins, slotting horror entries near their drops and coalescing around arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical 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+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not deter a dual release from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil check over here Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month wraps 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 thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. 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 widowed man’s virtual companion becomes something romantically 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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped 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 fight to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that threads the dread through a little one’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: get redirected here TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, 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 materiality, sound, and visuals 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.