Mythic Evil Ascends within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching Oct 2025 across global platforms

One terrifying mystic suspense story from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic horror when drifters become instruments in a malevolent ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of survival and old world terror that will remodel genre cinema this October. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy feature follows five teens who are stirred locked in a isolated wooden structure under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a millennia-old biblical force. Arm yourself to be immersed by a theatrical outing that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the monsters no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the haunting part of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a intense struggle between purity and corruption.


In a isolated wilderness, five friends find themselves stuck under the possessive influence and spiritual invasion of a shadowy figure. As the team becomes unable to resist her command, detached and tormented by beings inconceivable, they are made to stand before their worst nightmares while the moments mercilessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and bonds collapse, forcing each figure to evaluate their values and the idea of personal agency itself. The stakes intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that integrates otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken basic terror, an presence from ancient eras, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a curse that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that flip is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers no matter where they are can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Experience this unforgettable path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to acknowledge these chilling revelations about the human condition.


For director insights, on-set glimpses, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts interlaces primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, plus brand-name tremors

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread rooted in primordial scripture and extending to brand-name continuations paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most textured and strategic year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, concurrently streamers saturate the fall with new voices set against old-world menace. In parallel, the artisan tier is propelled by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 returns in 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, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming genre season: next chapters, Originals, paired with A busy Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The emerging horror cycle clusters in short order with a January pile-up, following that rolls through the summer months, and straight through the holiday stretch, fusing brand equity, original angles, and strategic counterplay. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the most reliable counterweight in studio calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still insulate the liability when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The head of steam extended into the 2025 frame, where revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a lane for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a programming that seems notably aligned across players, with purposeful groupings, a blend of familiar brands and original hooks, and a renewed strategy on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Insiders argue the space now acts as a utility player on the release plan. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, create a simple premise for marketing and social clips, and over-index with viewers that appear on early shows and continue through the second weekend if the release satisfies. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm shows faith in that equation. The slate gets underway with a heavy January run, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The gridline also features the greater integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and widen at the proper time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy IP. Big banners are not just greenlighting another return. They are seeking to position ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that announces a new vibe or a casting pivot that reconnects a next film to a heyday. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating hands-on technique, on-set effects and vivid settings. That interplay produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of familiarity and discovery, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two centerpiece releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a fan-service aware framework without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run centered on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, soulful, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that mutates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny live moments and micro spots that interweaves devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, makeup-driven execution can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror jolt that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and textual fidelity, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries near launch and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate 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 promise is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate point to a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. 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 heavier IP. 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 real, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

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

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising 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 piece that manipulates the fright of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and headline-actor led spirit-world suspense.

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 genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family snared by returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space 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.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 check over here surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where midrange-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 quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sonics, and imagery 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.