Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This blood-curdling occult nightmare movie from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primordial malevolence when outsiders become instruments in a demonic ordeal. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of survival and mythic evil that will reimagine horror this autumn. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie cinema piece follows five people who regain consciousness ensnared in a off-grid cottage under the unfriendly power of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Be warned to be captivated by a audio-visual journey that blends raw fear with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the beings no longer descend from beyond, but rather from within. This embodies the most primal facet of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the conflict becomes a brutal conflict between heaven and hell.


In a bleak wilderness, five souls find themselves contained under the possessive dominion and inhabitation of a obscure entity. As the cast becomes defenseless to evade her manipulation, left alone and hunted by creatures unimaginable, they are forced to deal with their darkest emotions while the countdown without pity moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and links fracture, pressuring each character to challenge their personhood and the structure of independent thought itself. The cost accelerate with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore instinctual horror, an power rooted in antiquity, manipulating emotional fractures, and highlighting a curse that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that shift is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure customers globally can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has received over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this haunted path of possession. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate weaves legend-infused possession, independent shockers, plus series shake-ups

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from primordial scripture and including canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered together with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently subscription platforms crowd the fall with debut heat alongside scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is catching the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Economy, maximum dread

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and 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 lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage 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. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to 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. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 scrap for air. 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. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 chiller Year Ahead: entries, new stories, alongside A brimming Calendar aimed at screams

Dek: The incoming terror slate clusters at the outset with a January pile-up, before it rolls through peak season, and carrying into the holidays, mixing name recognition, inventive spins, and well-timed counterweight. Studios and platforms are embracing smart costs, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that shape the slate’s entries into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This category has emerged as the most reliable option in release plans, a pillar that can accelerate when it resonates and still buffer the drawdown when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that mid-range entries can lead social chatter, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and stealth successes. The energy fed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and elevated films underscored there is a lane for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across players, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and original hooks, and a recommitted focus on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Studio leaders note the category now acts as a utility player on the release plan. Horror can arrive on virtually any date, deliver a clean hook for trailers and vertical videos, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on Thursday nights and continue through the week two if the entry works. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that playbook. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also underscores the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and broaden at the timely point.

A companion trend is brand curation across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just rolling another chapter. They are shaping as story carry-over with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a lead change that threads a upcoming film to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are favoring in-camera technique, real effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy offers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of brand comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a handoff and a foundation-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a memory-charged approach without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with iconic art, early character teases, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and short reels that mixes affection and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart 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 mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by minute detail and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival wins, dating horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set announce the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not preclude a day-date move from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind these films signal a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live navigate to this website at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power flips and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and accumulating 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 in-home haunting narrative that manipulates the chill of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

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 send-up revival that skewers current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further extends again, with a fresh family tethered to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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 strong PLF footprints 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.