Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

A blood-curdling mystic suspense film from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic entity when unfamiliar people become subjects in a malevolent ritual. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of continuance and mythic evil that will transform horror this ghoul season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic feature follows five young adults who come to caught in a off-grid shack under the unfriendly sway of Kyra, a cursed figure overtaken by a antiquated scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be shaken by a screen-based spectacle that harmonizes gut-punch terror with mystical narratives, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the malevolences no longer appear from an outside force, but rather internally. This represents the most primal shade of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling inner struggle where the conflict becomes a perpetual contest between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken landscape, five adults find themselves stuck under the dark presence and possession of a haunted female presence. As the group becomes submissive to resist her dominion, severed and hunted by beings impossible to understand, they are driven to reckon with their soulful dreads while the final hour unceasingly runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension mounts and connections splinter, coercing each participant to reflect on their core and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The stakes accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that combines paranormal dread with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke ancestral fear, an threat before modern man, manifesting in our fears, and examining a power that threatens selfhood when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that shift is harrowing because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering streamers worldwide can witness this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has attracted over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this haunted descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these haunting secrets about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts braids together legend-infused possession, indie terrors, and IP aftershocks

Across survivor-centric dread saturated with biblical myth through to returning series and keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, while streamers prime the fall with discovery plays in concert with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is buoyed by the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring 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. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: 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. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in 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.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fear year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A stacked Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The fresh terror cycle crowds up front with a January crush, subsequently spreads through the warm months, and deep into the festive period, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has become the sturdy play in distribution calendars, a category that can expand when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured strategy teams that cost-conscious shockers can dominate cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and unexpected risers. The upswing translated to the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The sum for 2026 is a run that shows rare alignment across the industry, with clear date clusters, a pairing of established brands and new concepts, and a renewed eye on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and subscription services.

Schedulers say the category now performs as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on virtually any date, create a clean hook for trailers and social clips, and outperform with crowds that line up on previews Thursday and continue through the second frame if the movie satisfies. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 plan signals conviction in that equation. The year launches with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a fall run that runs into Halloween and beyond. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and grow at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is series management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. The companies are not just making another next film. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a refreshed voice or a casting choice that ties a new entry to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of trust and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a relay and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a legacy-leaning bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run leaning on franchise iconography, character previews, and a promo sequence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that escalates into a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as 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 reserves space for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s work are marketed as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward approach can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that expands both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, October hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps announce the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not preclude a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and raise the stakes. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to link the films through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind 2026 horror foreshadow a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which favor fan conventions and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 quiet contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month caps 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 real, but the variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer 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 horror on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-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 TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 abrasive boss work to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that routes the horror through a youngster’s unsteady perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family entangled with past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-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 quiet breakout 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.