Age-old Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding chiller, rolling out October 2025 on top streaming platforms

An spine-tingling occult terror film from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic malevolence when outsiders become conduits in a malevolent trial. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of struggle and primordial malevolence that will remodel scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and moody film follows five strangers who awaken sealed in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a haunted figure dominated by a timeless ancient fiend. Be warned to be seized by a audio-visual event that merges primitive horror with mythic lore, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the spirits no longer arise outside the characters, but rather from their core. This depicts the most primal facet of the protagonists. The result is a relentless moral showdown where the narrative becomes a merciless conflict between purity and corruption.


In a barren woodland, five friends find themselves marooned under the evil influence and curse of a obscure female figure. As the victims becomes incapacitated to escape her influence, exiled and hunted by creatures indescribable, they are compelled to stand before their inner horrors while the timeline coldly draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and alliances fracture, urging each member to evaluate their identity and the foundation of independent thought itself. The stakes intensify with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into core terror, an darkness that existed before mankind, emerging via fragile psyche, and testing a force that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure watchers internationally can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to a global viewership.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling descent into hell. Explore *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these spiritual awakenings about the psyche.


For cast commentary, extra content, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. lineup fuses Mythic Possession, indie terrors, and returning-series thunder

From endurance-driven terror grounded in old testament echoes and stretching into installment follow-ups plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios lay down anchors through proven series, in parallel digital services crowd the fall with new perspectives set against mythic dread. At the same time, festival-forward creators is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

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

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 genre year to come: follow-ups, new stories, plus A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The upcoming terror season packs up front with a January pile-up, from there stretches through June and July, and carrying into the December corridor, mixing marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Distributors with platforms are leaning into lean spends, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that pivot these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the surest option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still mitigate the exposure when it does not. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from returning installments to original features that scale internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new packages, and a tightened strategy on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and SVOD.

Insiders argue the space now functions as a versatile piece on the calendar. The genre can kick off on many corridors, deliver a clean hook for marketing and shorts, and overperform with crowds that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the next pass if the movie connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping telegraphs certainty in that model. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and past the holiday. The gridline also highlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across shared universes and legacy franchises. The players are not just turning out another return. They are looking to package connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That combination offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will build large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is crisp, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-form creative that melds companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates 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 creates space for a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects style can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shot that leans into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and Check This Out novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that amplifies both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with award winners or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month caps 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 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 carries.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 setup that explores the panic of a child’s fragile read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-grade and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

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 genre lampoon that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family caught in old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and compressed 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and camera work 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.