Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

This spine-tingling supernatural scare-fest from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval entity when foreigners become instruments in a supernatural conflict. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking chronicle of survival and mythic evil that will revamp horror this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic tale follows five figures who regain consciousness sealed in a cut-off dwelling under the malignant sway of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a prehistoric Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be seized by a immersive ride that integrates soul-chilling terror with folklore, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer come from an outside force, but rather from their core. This marks the most terrifying shade of each of them. The result is a enthralling mental war where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a remote landscape, five figures find themselves marooned under the ominous influence and domination of a uncanny person. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to deny her power, abandoned and preyed upon by beings unfathomable, they are made to reckon with their core terrors while the final hour unforgivingly strikes toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion grows and links collapse, compelling each character to evaluate their self and the integrity of conscious will itself. The tension intensify with every breath, delivering a horror experience that integrates occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to uncover instinctual horror, an evil that predates humanity, filtering through emotional fractures, and challenging a darkness that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something rooted in terror. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers around the globe can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this gripping exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to explore these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For featurettes, director cuts, and social posts via the production team, follow @YACMovie across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. Slate interlaces ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

From pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in legendary theology as well as IP renewals alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified in tandem with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. the big studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, at the same time premium streamers flood the fall with new perspectives plus mythic dread. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Landing October 2 across key streamers, 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Badges become bargaining chips
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
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw 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 several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new fright lineup: returning titles, original films, alongside A packed Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The fresh terror cycle crams from the jump with a January traffic jam, before it stretches through the mid-year, and pushing into the holiday stretch, braiding brand equity, creative pitches, and shrewd counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are embracing smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that shape horror entries into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable release in programming grids, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the liability when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to leaders that mid-range entries can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum moved into 2025, where resurrections and festival-grade titles underscored there is room for diverse approaches, from series extensions to non-IP projects that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a harmony of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a recommitted eye on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and digital services.

Planners observe the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, offer a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outpace with patrons that come out on early shows and maintain momentum through the next pass if the offering fires. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 pattern shows comfort in that logic. The year commences with a heavy January band, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a late-year stretch that stretches into spooky season and past the holiday. The program also underscores the continuing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and widen at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand management across shared universes and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just making another return. They are moving to present brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and location-forward worlds. That mix provides 2026 a healthy mix of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with signature symbols, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on odd public stunts and micro spots that melds intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an event moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are branded as event films, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a raw, in-camera leaning approach can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror hit that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a new take 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 charge to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that fortifies both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video pairs licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and curated strips to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. 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 somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October click site domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films hint at a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 meaningful, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 hard-edged boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 chiller that leverages the fear of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-accurate language and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. 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 cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, 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 visual texture, sound, and cinematography 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.