Ancient Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, landing October 2025 on major streaming services

An blood-curdling ghostly fear-driven tale from author / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless malevolence when foreigners become proxies in a cursed ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of resistance and old world terror that will reconstruct scare flicks this October. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy cinema piece follows five unknowns who awaken isolated in a off-grid structure under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Arm yourself to be gripped by a theatrical experience that harmonizes gut-punch terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the malevolences no longer appear externally, but rather deep within. This portrays the deepest element of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the story becomes a constant struggle between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned no-man's-land, five teens find themselves confined under the dark effect and possession of a secretive figure. As the cast becomes helpless to resist her curse, severed and chased by entities unfathomable, they are obligated to encounter their soulful dreads while the moments coldly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and associations disintegrate, urging each figure to scrutinize their identity and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The stakes surge with every tick, delivering a terror ride that fuses mystical fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover core terror, an darkness that predates humanity, working through inner turmoil, and wrestling with a evil that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that change is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers globally can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, exporting the fear to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to survive these haunting secrets about the soul.


For film updates, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. lineup weaves Mythic Possession, indie terrors, in parallel with series shake-ups

Moving from survival horror grounded in ancient scripture and extending to franchise returns set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned combined with strategic year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio majors bookend the months with franchise anchors, in parallel platform operators load up the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. On the festival side, the independent cohort is fueled by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. Since Halloween is the prized date, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into 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.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare calendar year ahead: follow-ups, fresh concepts, alongside A busy Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek The current terror cycle stacks from the jump with a January wave, subsequently carries through summer, and running into the late-year period, balancing brand equity, fresh ideas, and calculated counterweight. Distributors with platforms are prioritizing lean spends, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that convert these pictures into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the bankable play in release plans, a space that can spike when it breaks through and still cushion the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 proved to leaders that efficiently budgeted scare machines can dominate the national conversation, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where revivals and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with intentional bunching, a mix of established brands and fresh ideas, and a sharpened commitment on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and digital services.

Marketers add the category now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the release plan. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for trailers and social clips, and lead with fans that turn out on early shows and keep coming through the week two if the offering lands. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout underscores assurance in that engine. The slate begins with a heavy January window, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a October build that flows toward late October and past the holiday. The layout also features the continuing integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and roll out at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is brand strategy across unified worlds and veteran brands. Studios are not just making another next film. They are shaping as lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a tonal shift or a cast configuration that threads a next entry to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides 2026 a healthy mix of known notes and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two prominent entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it have a peek here up as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a legacy-leaning angle without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign built on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to revisit eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses love and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are positioned as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, on-set effects led strategy can feel prestige on a efficient spend. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 explicit mandate to serve both players and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature work, elements that can increase format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves library titles with global originals and small theatrical windows when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival buys, scheduling horror entries closer to launch and framing as events releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with prestige directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two brand 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 mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Look for 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 together, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not obstruct a parallel release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this slate forecast a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, 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 set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. 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 bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something seductively lethal. weblink Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

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 vision that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that frames the panic through a preteen’s flickering subjective lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for 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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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, why now

Three practical forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, and picture 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.