Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on top streamers

A bone-chilling mystic terror film from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten fear when drifters become victims in a fiendish trial. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking depiction of overcoming and archaic horror that will redefine horror this spooky time. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five teens who awaken sealed in a remote cottage under the dark command of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Be prepared to be shaken by a filmic adventure that combines visceral dread with timeless legends, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic narrative in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is turned on its head when the fiends no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather from within. This echoes the most hidden facet of each of them. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a relentless confrontation between good and evil.


In a abandoned backcountry, five youths find themselves trapped under the evil aura and overtake of a haunted character. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to oppose her rule, exiled and preyed upon by spirits mind-shattering, they are cornered to reckon with their soulful dreads while the moments unceasingly strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and teams disintegrate, prompting each survivor to doubt their personhood and the nature of self-determination itself. The stakes accelerate with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke ancestral fear, an evil beyond recorded history, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a will that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that flip is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households internationally can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has collected over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these terrifying truths about free will.


For director insights, making-of footage, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season stateside slate weaves Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, paired with legacy-brand quakes

From last-stand terror infused with biblical myth as well as series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned in tandem with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios stabilize the year with established lines, in tandem premium streamers prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside mythic dread. At the same time, the independent cohort is propelled by the carry from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming fright slate: next chapters, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at screams

Dek: The current genre slate clusters right away with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through June and July, and carrying into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, creative pitches, and shrewd counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that frame genre releases into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has turned into the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a pillar that can expand when it hits and still protect the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year proved to executives that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can own pop culture, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays signaled there is room for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that reads highly synchronized across the market, with obvious clusters, a combination of marquee IP and untested plays, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and digital services.

Planners observe the space now acts as a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can launch on open real estate, offer a sharp concept for teasers and short-form placements, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the picture satisfies. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates confidence in that model. The year launches with a stacked January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a autumn push that extends to Halloween and into early November. The gridline also underscores the ongoing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. Major shops are not just making another next film. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a new vibe or a lead change that connects a new entry to a heyday. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That blend affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout stacked with iconic art, character previews, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay uncanny live moments and bite-size content that threads romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are branded as creative events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to own 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, makeup-driven strategy can feel high-value on a tight budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror shock that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a new take 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 focus to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that enhances both initial urgency and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video interleaves library titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, locking in horror entries closer to launch and turning into events debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 formidable, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for More about the author each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. 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 rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 ventures 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 and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command shifts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that pipes the unease through a child’s uneven subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that skewers modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan linked to older hauntings. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 exploit those windows. 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. Anticipate a robust 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 rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.