Age-old Evil reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across leading streamers

One terrifying spectral thriller from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric dread when passersby become victims in a satanic experiment. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of perseverance and old world terror that will transform fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy motion picture follows five unacquainted souls who wake up locked in a far-off shack under the malignant command of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Be warned to be shaken by a filmic venture that intertwines soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical pillar in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is radically shifted when the monsters no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This echoes the most hidden shade of the protagonists. The result is a enthralling mind game where the emotions becomes a relentless clash between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned terrain, five souls find themselves stuck under the unholy force and spiritual invasion of a obscure woman. As the victims becomes helpless to fight her influence, detached and tormented by beings unfathomable, they are made to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the timeline without pity pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and partnerships splinter, prompting each character to reflect on their essence and the idea of personal agency itself. The risk escalate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that blends otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to channel raw dread, an entity that existed before mankind, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and wrestling with a being that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is clueless until the invasion happens, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing subscribers worldwide can get immersed in this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, giving access to the movie to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this unforgettable journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and promotions straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season American release plan weaves old-world possession, festival-born jolts, stacked beside brand-name tremors

Moving from endurance-driven terror suffused with near-Eastern lore as well as returning series plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex plus strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners bookend the months with familiar IP, simultaneously premium streamers pack the fall with fresh voices alongside ancestral chills. Meanwhile, independent banners is propelled by the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

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

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release 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 remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop 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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new Horror year to come: continuations, universe starters, as well as A busy Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The brand-new genre season packs up front with a January pile-up, from there carries through peak season, and straight through the winter holidays, braiding legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated offsets. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and viral-minded pushes that frame the slate’s entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This space has shown itself to be the bankable move in release plans, a corner that can scale when it performs and still protect the risk when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that disciplined-budget entries can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The momentum pushed into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings showed there is a lane for different modes, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with clear date clusters, a pairing of brand names and novel angles, and a tightened emphasis on release windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and platforms.

Planners observe the space now behaves like a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. Horror can debut on nearly any frame, yield a simple premise for teasers and short-form placements, and outperform with fans that turn out on early shows and sustain through the sophomore frame if the offering satisfies. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that equation. The year starts with a weighty January band, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a fall cadence that carries into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The arrangement also includes the stronger partnership of indie arms and subscription services that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across shared universes and heritage properties. Major shops are not just pushing another return. They are setting up continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a new tone or a casting choice that ties a latest entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the directors behind the most watched originals are returning to tactile craft, special makeup and concrete locations. That pairing gives 2026 a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a heritage-honoring angle without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence timed to 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is describing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both FOMO and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival buys, locking in horror entries near launch and turning into events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to widen. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films foreshadow a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which align with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer get redirected here while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-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 unyielding boss try to survive on a lonely island as the control balance reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that manipulates the terror of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October weblink 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. 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 period language and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 classic theatrical rollout before this website platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, 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 grain, soundscape, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.