Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

One chilling spiritual horror tale from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless horror when guests become tokens in a demonic conflict. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense chronicle of resistance and primordial malevolence that will reimagine terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves isolated in a off-grid cottage under the oppressive power of Kyra, a central character claimed by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a big screen event that weaves together intense horror with folklore, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is inverted when the spirits no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather from their core. This portrays the malevolent layer of the group. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the events becomes a merciless contest between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five young people find themselves caught under the evil grip and control of a elusive being. As the youths becomes unable to evade her curse, marooned and tormented by beings unfathomable, they are forced to encounter their inner horrors while the hours brutally strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension mounts and partnerships implode, pushing each member to doubt their true nature and the philosophy of free will itself. The danger climb with every instant, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore instinctual horror, an malevolence from prehistory, influencing human fragility, and wrestling with a being that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users from coast to coast can experience this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this haunted path of possession. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, independent shockers, plus Franchise Rumbles

Moving from grit-forward survival fare inspired by scriptural legend and including legacy revivals paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most variegated together with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, concurrently subscription platforms front-load the fall with fresh voices in concert with primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is riding the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, and 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, 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 tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, fresh concepts, plus A packed Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The upcoming genre slate packs in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through the mid-year, and far into the December corridor, combining series momentum, fresh ideas, and savvy counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are committing to smart costs, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has turned into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can scale when it connects and still limit the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to greenlighters that disciplined-budget genre plays can drive social chatter, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The run fed into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films demonstrated there is a lane for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to original features that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a lineup that seems notably aligned across studios, with mapped-out bands, a combination of marquee IP and novel angles, and a reinvigorated eye on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and platforms.

Planners observe the category now operates like a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can debut on many corridors, supply a quick sell for creative and short-form placements, and punch above weight with audiences that come out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the title fires. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm signals assurance in that logic. The slate opens with a stacked January band, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall run that stretches into the fright window and into November. The calendar also illustrates the continuing integration of indie arms and platforms that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and grow at the inflection point.

A further high-level trend is series management across linked properties and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another follow-up. They are setting up story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that binds a latest entry to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the visionaries behind the top original plays are doubling down on material texture, special makeup and distinct locales. That pairing delivers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of brand comfort and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a memory-charged angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push centered on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build general-audience talk through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and brief clips that mixes longing and fear.

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

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are positioned as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led strategy can feel premium on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video combines acquired titles with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to launch and turning into events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set illuminate the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 scramble to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that plays with the fright of a child’s fragile interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and toplined eerie 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 spoof revival that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first 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 horror 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 pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, 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.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.