Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

An spine-tingling paranormal terror film from literary architect / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old nightmare when unfamiliar people become proxies in a supernatural contest. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping episode of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will remodel fear-driven cinema this autumn. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who are stirred imprisoned in a hidden dwelling under the hostile grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl overtaken by a antiquated ancient fiend. Be warned to be enthralled by a narrative ride that harmonizes primitive horror with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a classic narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the forces no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather internally. This depicts the grimmest aspect of each of them. The result is a relentless mental war where the story becomes a constant face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote forest, five young people find themselves isolated under the fiendish presence and domination of a obscure entity. As the group becomes unresisting to reject her grasp, severed and pursued by creatures unimaginable, they are cornered to reckon with their inner demons while the doomsday meter ruthlessly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension intensifies and partnerships erode, pushing each member to evaluate their values and the foundation of liberty itself. The risk intensify with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to extract primal fear, an evil before modern man, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and challenging a being that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is eerie because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing streamers from coast to coast can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to a global viewership.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Watch *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to experience these dark realities about human nature.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. calendar blends archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Ranging from endurance-driven terror inspired by ancient scripture to returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most textured together with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios bookend the months using marquee IP, at the same time digital services load up the fall with new voices set against old-world menace. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: 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. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

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. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is 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 script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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.

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. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to 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. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming scare lineup: installments, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The incoming terror cycle builds at the outset with a January logjam, thereafter stretches through peak season, and well into the winter holidays, combining name recognition, untold stories, and tactical counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the steady release in programming grids, a space that can break out when it hits and still limit the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that low-to-mid budget chillers can command the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is appetite for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a slate that presents tight coordination across studios, with obvious clusters, a combination of brand names and original hooks, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the category now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. The genre can kick off on many corridors, create a grabby hook for creative and reels, and overperform with crowds that line up on opening previews and return through the follow-up frame if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan shows confidence in that setup. The year begins with a weighty January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while leaving room for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and beyond. The schedule also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can build gradually, generate chatter, and grow at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across linked properties and classic IP. The companies are not just producing another installment. They are trying to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that telegraphs a refreshed voice or a cast configuration that links a new installment to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing tactile craft, special makeup and specific settings. That fusion gives 2026 a confident blend of brand comfort and newness, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the narrative stance hints at a heritage-honoring bent without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. A campaign is expected fueled by recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tight, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that evolves into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to mirror uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that melds longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob have a peek at this web-site Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that pushes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror built on obsessive craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that boosts both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video pairs third-party pickups with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries near their drops and coalescing around rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 is weighted toward the news legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is grounded enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind this year’s genre forecast a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make get redirected here the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s 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 playful and broad, 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 satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse 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 encounter a warped 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that leverages the panic of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family linked to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. 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: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 modest-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

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

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct vision where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.