Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A eerie metaphysical scare-fest from cinematographer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried entity when unknowns become conduits in a satanic maze. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of resilience and old world terror that will remodel genre cinema this Halloween season. Visualized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic screenplay follows five teens who wake up confined in a remote shelter under the menacing control of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a ancient ancient fiend. Prepare to be hooked by a visual outing that weaves together visceral dread with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a recurring foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is radically shifted when the fiends no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This portrays the darkest aspect of the victims. The result is a gripping mental war where the story becomes a unforgiving struggle between right and wrong.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five figures find themselves caught under the sinister rule and infestation of a mysterious being. As the protagonists becomes incapable to combat her power, exiled and stalked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are compelled to reckon with their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and relationships shatter, requiring each survivor to question their self and the idea of conscious will itself. The consequences rise with every breath, delivering a horror experience that combines ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken primitive panic, an malevolence from prehistory, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and testing a presence that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving fans worldwide can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Join this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to uncover these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. lineup melds archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, together with Franchise Rumbles

Across endurance-driven terror infused with old testament echoes and stretching into returning series paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted plus deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios hold down the year with established lines, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with emerging auteurs set against primordial unease. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by 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. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, and also A busy Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek: The current scare calendar crams in short order with a January traffic jam, thereafter stretches through midyear, and well into the winter holidays, mixing series momentum, original angles, and savvy offsets. Distributors with platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that shape these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the dependable release in annual schedules, a segment that can expand when it performs and still hedge the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year showed top brass that low-to-mid budget chillers can dominate pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind moved into 2025, where revived properties and prestige plays underscored there is a lane for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a recommitted focus on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on premium on-demand and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can bow on a wide range of weekends, furnish a clear pitch for previews and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that line up on Thursday nights and return through the subsequent weekend if the film hits. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals belief in that engine. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The map also features the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The studios are not just mounting another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a talent selection that ties a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most watched originals are doubling down on physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That interplay yields 2026 a healthy mix of comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a relay and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a throwback-friendly framework without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign anchored in heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is crisp, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to revisit eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, makeup-driven strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that fortifies both first-week urgency and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival buys, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans great post to read on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the 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, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a day-date try from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast 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 proceeds 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 filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to link the films through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 demanding boss try to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that threads the dread through a kid’s shifting personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. 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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family anchored to past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 search for sleepers 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and visual design 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.