Age-old Evil Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An bone-chilling mystic shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless malevolence when passersby become proxies in a devilish struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of continuance and forgotten curse that will revamp scare flicks this scare season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic tale follows five young adults who arise confined in a off-grid structure under the sinister command of Kyra, a central character occupied by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Anticipate to be absorbed by a filmic ride that intertwines bodily fright with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established element in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the malevolences no longer appear from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This marks the malevolent corner of the victims. The result is a gripping inner struggle where the emotions becomes a brutal confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving terrain, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish rule and inhabitation of a shadowy being. As the characters becomes unresisting to deny her influence, abandoned and stalked by powers beyond comprehension, they are confronted to encounter their worst nightmares while the clock unceasingly counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and connections fracture, pressuring each survivor to examine their identity and the structure of decision-making itself. The stakes accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon raw dread, an darkness beyond time, working through our fears, and navigating a darkness that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was centered on something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the takeover begins, and that evolution is eerie because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure households across the world can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Join this visceral path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these unholy truths about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, director cuts, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the official website.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate blends old-world possession, indie terrors, alongside franchise surges

Across survival horror inspired by old testament echoes all the way to brand-name continuations together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified as well as tactically planned year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, in parallel SVOD players load up the fall with new voices and legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, horror’s indie wing is carried on the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

The 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. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. 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 box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new chiller season: brand plays, original films, plus A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The new scare slate clusters right away with a January bottleneck, subsequently stretches through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, mixing marquee clout, original angles, and calculated counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has grown into the surest counterweight in distribution calendars, a category that can expand when it connects and still protect the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects made clear there is space for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of brand names and fresh ideas, and a recommitted priority on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on premium digital and home streaming.

Executives say the space now behaves like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can premiere on many corridors, supply a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release fires. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm reflects trust in that dynamic. The year launches with a heavy January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a fall cadence that stretches into late October and into the next week. The program also illustrates the ongoing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a new installment to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a roots-evoking strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected driven by heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are sold as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around world-building, and creature design, elements that can drive premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and editorial rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, confirming horror entries toward the drop and eventizing debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on 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 in tandem, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a ascendant talent. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years frame the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which favor fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid heavier IP. The month closes with Send Help on this website January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 struggle to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 plays with the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 satire sequel that needles current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household snared by past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. 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 period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors 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.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 work 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, 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 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.