Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A chilling mystic thriller from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless force when unknowns become tools in a cursed ritual. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of continuance and forgotten curse that will alter genre cinema this ghoul season. Helmed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick fearfest follows five young adults who are stirred caught in a off-grid house under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Be prepared to be hooked by a narrative spectacle that integrates soul-chilling terror with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the forces no longer arise beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This marks the deepest element of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the conflict becomes a constant struggle between virtue and vice.


In a barren no-man's-land, five teens find themselves confined under the possessive sway and infestation of a obscure character. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to break her dominion, cut off and followed by powers indescribable, they are confronted to battle their inner horrors while the hours ruthlessly edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and relationships collapse, forcing each member to rethink their being and the principle of autonomy itself. The tension magnify with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to channel deep fear, an presence older than civilization itself, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and challenging a presence that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households internationally can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to a global viewership.


Witness this heart-stopping path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these dark realities about mankind.


For teasers, filmmaker commentary, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule melds myth-forward possession, underground frights, and IP aftershocks

Ranging from endurance-driven terror steeped in near-Eastern lore through to franchise returns in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the most complex plus carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors lock in tentpoles with established lines, as platform operators flood the fall with emerging auteurs plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, horror’s indie wing is riding the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via 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 taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, 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.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The arriving terror season stacks from day one with a January traffic jam, then carries through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining IP strength, creative pitches, and savvy counterweight. Studios and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still limit the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that disciplined-budget fright engines can drive pop culture, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films signaled there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of established brands and fresh ideas, and a recommitted eye on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the feature hits. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a thick January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and established properties. Major shops are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a tonal shift or a cast configuration that threads a upcoming film to a first wave. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into tactile craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That pairing produces 2026 a confident blend of recognition and invention, which is how the films export.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two prominent bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a memory-charged bent without replaying the last click site two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate odd public stunts and brief clips that melds love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are set up as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, hands-on effects strategy can feel premium on a moderate cost. Expect a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is selling as a new take 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 directive to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around lore, and creature builds, elements that can drive premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas useful reference Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival snaps, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and eventizing debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a parallel release from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and grow scope. 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 filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries signal a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver 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 finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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: Twin-shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting setup that manipulates the fright of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family bound to past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, 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 stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient placements, 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, audio design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.