Age-old Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

This haunting ghostly suspense film from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an mythic horror when unfamiliar people become conduits in a satanic game. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of struggle and prehistoric entity that will redefine terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric story follows five young adults who are stirred caught in a cut-off cabin under the menacing command of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a filmic ride that harmonizes deep-seated panic with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the entities no longer appear from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the grimmest part of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the suspense becomes a merciless contest between heaven and hell.


In a bleak wild, five friends find themselves contained under the fiendish presence and inhabitation of a unidentified female presence. As the characters becomes powerless to break her manipulation, severed and tracked by unknowns mind-shattering, they are driven to encounter their emotional phantoms while the moments mercilessly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and connections dissolve, forcing each soul to evaluate their values and the integrity of independent thought itself. The pressure mount with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to channel deep fear, an darkness before modern man, emerging via psychological breaks, and examining a being that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure fans globally can witness this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, offering the tale to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this life-altering voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these unholy truths about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, on-set glimpses, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts Mixes biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside brand-name tremors

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from scriptural legend and stretching into series comebacks as well as focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most variegated paired with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors bookend the months via recognizable brands, simultaneously premium streamers stack the fall with debut heat together with ancestral chills. On another front, independent banners is riding the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through 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 all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

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

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A brimming Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The incoming terror slate builds from day one with a January traffic jam, thereafter rolls through summer, and running into the holidays, balancing marquee clout, novel approaches, and smart offsets. Studios and streamers are betting on cost discipline, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still safeguard the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to decision-makers that efficiently budgeted entries can command the national conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is an opening for many shades, from returning installments to original features that play globally. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of known properties and new packages, and a sharpened stance on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and home streaming.

Buyers contend the genre now behaves like a utility player on the schedule. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, offer a grabby hook for marketing and shorts, and punch above weight with audiences that come out on advance nights and hold through the second weekend if the offering connects. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs conviction in that engine. The calendar opens with a busy January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a September to October window that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The schedule also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and roll out at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and classic IP. The studios are not just making another follow-up. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that signals a re-angled tone or a talent selection that bridges a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a memory-charged strategy without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an machine companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are treated as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Look for a red-band summer horror rush that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling 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 focus to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can lift format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both launch urgency and sign-up spikes in the later window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global originals and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and curated rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival grabs, securing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building 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 appeal is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus Check This Out will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has been successful for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using mini theatrical to jump-start 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 leverage household recognition. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent comps clarify the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not block a same-day experiment from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the year’s horror point to a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 check over here is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. 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 virtual companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces 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 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: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game 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 tough boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting setup that twists the dread of a child’s tricky impressions. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title 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 comic send-up that targets modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. 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 era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why this year, why now

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 lean-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing 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 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.