Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

A terrifying occult thriller from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an forgotten malevolence when drifters become proxies in a fiendish game. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of staying alive and old world terror that will resculpt the fear genre this October. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic story follows five figures who suddenly rise stranded in a unreachable lodge under the hostile sway of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a antiquated biblical demon. Arm yourself to be immersed by a theatrical presentation that blends bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the demons no longer descend externally, but rather inside them. This represents the darkest version of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal moral showdown where the narrative becomes a ongoing struggle between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting woodland, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the possessive aura and spiritual invasion of a unknown apparition. As the youths becomes incapable to withstand her control, isolated and targeted by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are forced to acknowledge their inner horrors while the seconds ruthlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion swells and connections dissolve, compelling each character to examine their values and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The tension amplify with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that combines otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into raw dread, an evil from prehistory, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a power that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that households around the globe can experience this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has earned over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this gripping path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For film updates, special features, and promotions from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar integrates archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, and franchise surges

Beginning with life-or-death fear suffused with near-Eastern lore to franchise returns as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified and calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios set cornerstones with known properties, even as platform operators saturate the fall with fresh voices as well as primordial unease. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter 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. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next Horror season: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The fresh genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently flows through midyear, and running into the holidays, marrying legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into lean spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape these offerings into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has turned into the steady release in release strategies, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still buffer the exposure when it falls short. After the 2023 year reminded studio brass that lean-budget scare machines can galvanize the discourse, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The run pushed into 2025, where re-entries and awards-minded projects signaled there is appetite for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with defined corridors, a balance of legacy names and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the genre now functions as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can premiere on many corridors, furnish a clear pitch for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals trust in that model. The calendar opens with a weighty January run, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and beyond. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and broaden at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. Studios are not just releasing another return. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a tonal shift or a cast configuration that anchors a next film to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach hints at a classic-referencing strategy without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by classic imagery, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that hybridizes romance and creep.

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 official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both devotees and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by rigorous craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already set the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines library titles with international acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries closer to launch and staging as events launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using targeted theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not obstruct a parallel release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror hint at a continued lean toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise my review here side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss fight to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that toys with the horror of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter timelines. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where value-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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.