Primeval Evil Returns in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on premium platforms

One blood-curdling unearthly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric curse when newcomers become conduits in a dark ceremony. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of living through and timeless dread that will redefine fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and cinematic cinema piece follows five individuals who are stirred sealed in a remote shelter under the menacing sway of Kyra, a tormented girl haunted by a time-worn holy text monster. Prepare to be captivated by a narrative adventure that weaves together intense horror with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is flipped when the fiends no longer appear outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This marks the most sinister facet of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a remote woodland, five characters find themselves contained under the unholy sway and overtake of a enigmatic apparition. As the companions becomes vulnerable to deny her curse, cut off and tracked by forces indescribable, they are made to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the doomsday meter unceasingly winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and associations implode, prompting each character to examine their character and the integrity of liberty itself. The cost grow with every heartbeat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that combines occult fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to channel instinctual horror, an malevolence from prehistory, influencing fragile psyche, and challenging a spirit that questions who we are when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that pivot is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers worldwide can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Make sure to see this visceral voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets stateside slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Moving from grit-forward survival fare drawn from ancient scripture through to canon extensions as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most textured together with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, at the same time premium streamers pack the fall with discovery plays plus mythic dread. On another front, indie storytellers is fueled by the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate lights the fuse with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns 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.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. 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. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming spook lineup: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A hectic Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek The upcoming horror year loads early with a January cluster, thereafter unfolds through midyear, and far into the holiday stretch, blending brand equity, novel approaches, and calculated calendar placement. The major players are embracing cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that shape genre titles into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the bankable play in programming grids, a lane that can grow when it clicks and still protect the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded buyers that disciplined-budget fright engines can shape the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and stealth successes. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is appetite for many shades, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with strategic blocks, a pairing of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a reinvigorated focus on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now performs as a utility player on the slate. The genre can kick off on nearly any frame, offer a clear pitch for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with viewers that appear on Thursday previews and stick through the next pass if the offering pays off. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 setup indicates conviction in that logic. The year launches with a thick January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and subscription services that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and broaden at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared universes and classic IP. Big banners are not just making another follow-up. They are looking to package connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that signals a fresh attitude or a talent selection that ties a new installment to a initial period. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the top original plays are doubling down on hands-on technique, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a classic-referencing strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push rooted in heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise creepy live activations and quick hits that mixes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are framed as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is selling as a new take 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 franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that amplifies both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video balances licensed films with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined for modern sound and image. 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 positioned a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Anticipate 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 hand in hand, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The concern, as ever, is get redirected here overexposure. The practical approach is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a dual release from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which align with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and click to read more now hosts 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. 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 scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 try to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting story that frames the panic through a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-grade and A-list fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an overseas twist in tone horror and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 use those gaps. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and image-making 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.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.