Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming October 2025 across leading streamers

An unnerving supernatural fright fest from literary architect / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an mythic fear when drifters become victims in a fiendish experiment. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of survival and prehistoric entity that will alter fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic feature follows five teens who suddenly rise confined in a off-grid hideaway under the sinister power of Kyra, a cursed figure controlled by a millennia-old Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be shaken by a audio-visual journey that blends instinctive fear with ancestral stories, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a recurring theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the spirits no longer originate outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the most hidden aspect of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the conflict becomes a brutal contest between light and darkness.


In a barren no-man's-land, five figures find themselves stuck under the ghastly aura and domination of a obscure woman. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to fight her curse, detached and attacked by presences unfathomable, they are compelled to stand before their inner horrors while the hours ruthlessly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and ties fracture, requiring each individual to examine their existence and the idea of volition itself. The threat climb with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that integrates mystical fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover basic terror, an spirit from ancient eras, working through psychological breaks, and wrestling with a entity that peels away humanity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the haunting manifests, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences from coast to coast can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this heart-stopping journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to confront these chilling revelations about free will.


For previews, set experiences, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate weaves old-world possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Running from last-stand terror suffused with scriptural legend and stretching into canon extensions plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated paired with deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios bookend the months with familiar IP, while streaming platforms prime the fall with new perspectives set against mythic dread. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed by 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, alongside A busy Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar stacks from day one with a January cluster, following that carries through the mid-year, and pushing into the festive period, blending brand heft, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. The major players are doubling down on smart costs, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that frame genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has grown into the steady lever in programming grids, a genre that can lift when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted entries can drive cultural conversation, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects underscored there is a lane for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that travel well. The result for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the market, with defined corridors, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a re-energized stance on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and platforms.

Executives say the category now acts as a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a quick sell for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the release fires. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm shows trust in that dynamic. The year commences with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a fall cadence that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The map also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a star attachment that bridges a new entry to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that sit at tonal extremes. 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 lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, soulful, and big-hook: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit eerie street stunts and quick hits that mixes intimacy and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as 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 allows a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a hard-R summer horror shot that leans into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and creature work, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by minute detail and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps announce the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that observed windows did not stop a parallel release from working when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient 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 shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which align with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

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

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

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back 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: 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 tough boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that manipulates the panic of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-scale and name-above-title supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody return that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked 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 bursts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family caught in lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: active. 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 language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will More about the author share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and visual design 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.