Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One spine-tingling unearthly shockfest from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old evil when passersby become pawns in a hellish experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of living through and old world terror that will resculpt horror this October. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five lost souls who emerge stuck in a off-grid shack under the malignant grip of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a timeless sacred-era entity. Steel yourself to be shaken by a visual journey that melds bone-deep fear with legendary tales, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a well-established motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the forces no longer form from beyond, but rather within themselves. This illustrates the most sinister side of the cast. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the tension becomes a merciless battle between purity and corruption.


In a remote landscape, five individuals find themselves sealed under the dark rule and haunting of a secretive woman. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to deny her rule, cut off and tormented by evils inconceivable, they are driven to stand before their deepest fears while the time unceasingly strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and ties disintegrate, coercing each individual to doubt their being and the idea of personal agency itself. The risk accelerate with every instant, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines unearthly horror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon pure dread, an spirit beyond recorded history, operating within our fears, and examining a being that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the entity awakens, and that shift is eerie because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering customers globally can survive this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this mind-warping descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and social posts directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. rollouts melds primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, plus legacy-brand quakes

Moving from survival horror drawn from biblical myth and including legacy revivals set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted paired with strategic year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, even as premium streamers saturate the fall with debut heat plus archetypal fear. At the same time, independent banners is fueled by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: 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, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fright release year: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh scare cycle stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, after that unfolds through summer corridors, and continuing into the year-end corridor, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that pivot genre titles into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has proven to be the predictable swing in release plans, a lane that can spike when it catches and still safeguard the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that lean-budget chillers can shape audience talk, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The energy translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and prestige plays demonstrated there is capacity for multiple flavors, from returning installments to original features that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a harmony of legacy names and new concepts, and a tightened focus on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Buyers contend the category now acts as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, furnish a simple premise for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with fans that line up on opening previews and continue through the week two if the film pays off. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 pattern indicates conviction in that logic. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a fall run that extends to the fright window and beyond. The map also highlights the stronger partnership of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across linked properties and storied titles. Big banners are not just mounting another next film. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that binds a upcoming film to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on tactile craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That alloy gives 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that mutates into a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, makeup-driven treatment can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global this page pickups and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries near their drops and coalescing around arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is known enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. 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 advances 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 shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind the year’s horror suggest a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. 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 quiet contrast amid larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth carries.

Early-year through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 difficult boss work to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting tale that pipes the unease through a minor’s shifting personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and headline-actor led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that teases of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family tethered to old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.