Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming October 2025 across major platforms

A chilling otherworldly horror tale from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric fear when newcomers become proxies in a dark experiment. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving journey of resistance and timeless dread that will remodel scare flicks this season. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic film follows five unknowns who wake up stuck in a off-grid shack under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a ancient scriptural evil. Be prepared to be enthralled by a theatrical presentation that merges gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a enduring trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the monsters no longer form outside the characters, but rather from within. This suggests the most sinister corner of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing mind game where the intensity becomes a brutal struggle between purity and corruption.


In a barren backcountry, five young people find themselves marooned under the ominous rule and inhabitation of a unidentified female presence. As the companions becomes paralyzed to resist her power, stranded and tormented by powers beyond reason, they are pushed to endure their greatest panics while the deathwatch unforgivingly counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and connections collapse, pushing each protagonist to contemplate their existence and the idea of volition itself. The risk mount with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that blends ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore pure dread, an darkness that predates humanity, emerging via fragile psyche, and dealing with a will that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering users across the world can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this soul-jarring fall into madness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and promotions from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 domestic schedule integrates Mythic Possession, independent shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with mythic scripture and stretching into series comebacks alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned and precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios hold down the year with franchise anchors, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as old-world menace. At the same time, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return 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 arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy 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. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by 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 the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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 goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

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

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The forthcoming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: continuations, fresh concepts, plus A Crowded Calendar designed for chills

Dek: The new terror season stacks at the outset with a January bottleneck, thereafter spreads through the warm months, and running into the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, new voices, and well-timed calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that frame these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has emerged as the consistent lever in programming grids, a segment that can scale when it resonates and still cushion the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that disciplined-budget shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and elevated films confirmed there is a market for several lanes, from returning installments to director-led originals that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the market, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated stance on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium home window and home streaming.

Executives say the horror lane now works like a wildcard on the slate. Horror can premiere on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with viewers that respond on previews Thursday and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the release pays off. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores conviction in that equation. The slate begins with a crowded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall cadence that connects to All Hallows period and into November. The arrangement also shows the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and widen at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Major shops are not just making another next film. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that threads a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and freshness, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a throwback-friendly angle without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push built on classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that grows into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that threads love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to fill 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, practical-first method can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a fresh restart 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 serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature design, elements that can boost large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that enhances both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video balances licensed titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of precision releases and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without long breaks.

Behind-the-camera trends

The filmmaking conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded 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 closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that More about the author plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. 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 cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned 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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 left-field winner 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing 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 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.