Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across leading streamers

A bone-chilling mystic shockfest from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic malevolence when unrelated individuals become puppets in a diabolical ordeal. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of living through and old world terror that will transform scare flicks this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five lost souls who regain consciousness ensnared in a off-grid cottage under the menacing power of Kyra, a mysterious girl possessed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a filmic display that combines gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical tradition in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the entities no longer emerge externally, but rather within themselves. This embodies the malevolent element of every character. The result is a relentless psychological battle where the plotline becomes a merciless face-off between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting landscape, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the possessive sway and spiritual invasion of a haunted female presence. As the cast becomes incapable to escape her grasp, severed and preyed upon by evils mind-shattering, they are compelled to face their core terrors while the deathwatch harrowingly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and ties collapse, demanding each survivor to examine their true nature and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The hazard surge with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to draw upon core terror, an presence before modern man, filtering through our weaknesses, and confronting a presence that questions who we are when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the control shifts, and that pivot is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving subscribers across the world can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Tune in for this unforgettable journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to uncover these spiritual awakenings about human nature.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Today’s horror Turning Point: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup integrates Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales infused with near-Eastern lore to installment follow-ups together with surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated together with intentionally scheduled year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses set cornerstones using marquee IP, even as platform operators load up the fall with debut heat alongside ancestral chills. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp opens the year with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by 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. landing in mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

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 opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: 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 scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next spook calendar year ahead: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, together with A stacked Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek The arriving horror slate lines up immediately with a January wave, thereafter carries through midyear, and carrying into the late-year period, braiding brand equity, creative pitches, and savvy release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the dependable option in release plans, a vertical that can grow when it connects and still buffer the liability when it does not. After the 2023 year reminded executives that responsibly budgeted genre plays can lead the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The momentum pushed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films showed there is a market for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a pairing of brand names and new pitches, and a re-energized focus on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium on-demand and home platforms.

Marketers add the space now functions as a plug-and-play option on the grid. Horror can debut on numerous frames, yield a clean hook for spots and social clips, and punch above weight with patrons that line up on opening previews and sustain through the next weekend if the picture connects. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects certainty in that engine. The year starts with a heavy January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a October build that runs into the Halloween corridor and past Halloween. The gridline also illustrates the greater integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just making another chapter. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that conveys a fresh attitude or a star attachment that anchors a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the same time, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are championing tactile craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy delivers 2026 a lively combination of trust and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount leads early with two spotlight releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a legacy-leaning strategy without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on iconic art, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets 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 public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are set up as director events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, practical-first approach can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The label has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that boosts both FOMO and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Keep an eye 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 in parallel, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand this page each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is known enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that maintained windows did not obstruct a parallel release from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind this year’s genre point to a continued emphasis on hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped this website photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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. click site Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power balance reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting piece that manipulates the fright of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 parody return that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household bound to ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and compressed 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, 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 texture, acoustics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.