Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An chilling occult nightmare movie from dramatist / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient malevolence when newcomers become victims in a fiendish contest. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of survival and primeval wickedness that will resculpt terror storytelling this Halloween season. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and emotionally thick motion picture follows five unacquainted souls who snap to confined in a unreachable shack under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Prepare to be absorbed by a screen-based experience that weaves together instinctive fear with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing narrative in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the spirits no longer come from beyond, but rather through their own souls. This depicts the most hidden element of the group. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the plotline becomes a intense tug-of-war between heaven and hell.


In a bleak backcountry, five figures find themselves trapped under the possessive sway and infestation of a mysterious female figure. As the companions becomes defenseless to fight her dominion, marooned and preyed upon by powers mind-shattering, they are compelled to wrestle with their inner horrors while the timeline without pity moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and alliances fracture, pushing each character to question their core and the structure of independent thought itself. The threat surge with every second, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke deep fear, an spirit beyond recorded history, operating within human fragility, and testing a being that strips down our being when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that transition is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving households worldwide can be part of this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original clip, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Join this cinematic voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these spiritual awakenings about our species.


For cast commentary, production news, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup melds ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, together with series shake-ups

Across survival horror grounded in scriptural legend as well as brand-name continuations paired with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most variegated paired with calculated campaign year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors bookend the months through proven series, at the same time premium streamers saturate the fall with debut heat together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming terror slate: continuations, Originals, paired with A jammed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek: The current horror season packs in short order with a January bottleneck, and then flows through summer, and running into the holiday frame, braiding franchise firepower, novel approaches, and smart counterplay. Studios and streamers are embracing responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that transform these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has solidified as the bankable play in programming grids, a pillar that can grow when it performs and still cushion the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reminded buyers that lean-budget fright engines can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is space for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a run that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a sharpened commitment on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, provide a sharp concept for marketing and TikTok spots, and overperform with viewers that respond on Thursday previews and continue through the week two if the offering lands. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a thick January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The map also highlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just making another return. They are looking to package story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into in-camera technique, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a strong blend of recognition and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, hands-on effects execution can feel premium on a moderate cost. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach 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 mission to this page serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival additions, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet 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 launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is this website centering a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set announce the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward physical, site-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-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. 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 AI companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 widens the scope 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 revered infection cycle.

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: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that channels the fear through a young child’s unreliable internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and leaner 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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 robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, disciplined footprints, 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, soundscape, and cinematography 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 Is Well Positioned

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.