Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

A frightening paranormal fright fest from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried force when guests become proxies in a demonic struggle. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful depiction of struggle and age-old darkness that will revolutionize horror this scare season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive cinema piece follows five teens who awaken locked in a wilderness-bound shack under the oppressive power of Kyra, a young woman occupied by a ancient ancient fiend. Prepare to be shaken by a audio-visual adventure that combines intense horror with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is turned on its head when the entities no longer develop from external sources, but rather from their core. This echoes the shadowy part of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving fight between purity and corruption.


In a desolate backcountry, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish dominion and grasp of a unknown female presence. As the companions becomes defenseless to reject her power, severed and attacked by beings indescribable, they are obligated to wrestle with their greatest panics while the timeline coldly draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and teams splinter, prompting each member to evaluate their true nature and the nature of decision-making itself. The tension intensify with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that marries occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken ancestral fear, an entity older than civilization itself, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a evil that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving customers no matter where they are can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Join this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these haunting secrets about the soul.


For film updates, director cuts, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s sea change: the year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, together with returning-series thunder

Spanning endurance-driven terror grounded in ancient scripture and onward to installment follow-ups and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated in tandem with blueprinted year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios lay down anchors with franchise anchors, concurrently digital services crowd the fall with fresh voices plus ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal begins the calendar with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

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

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set 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.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. 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, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 oncoming fright release year: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A hectic Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The incoming scare year crowds right away with a January wave, following that carries through midyear, and carrying into the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are committing to lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and buzz-forward plans that turn genre releases into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has emerged as the bankable option in annual schedules, a corner that can scale when it hits and still hedge the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that disciplined-budget chillers can command the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The run pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and arthouse crossovers confirmed there is appetite for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The end result for 2026 is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with defined corridors, a harmony of marquee IP and original hooks, and a renewed commitment on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the category now works like a fill-in ace on the release plan. The genre can bow on many corridors, create a easy sell for spots and vertical videos, and outpace with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the picture satisfies. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals trust in that playbook. The year opens with a crowded January window, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while holding room for a September to October window that runs into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The calendar also reflects the increasing integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and expand at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across linked properties and heritage properties. Studios are not just making another chapter. They are working to present connection with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that links a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing hands-on technique, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That combination offers the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a classic-referencing framework without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. Anticipate a campaign built on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are set up as event films, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to dominate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects approach can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters this page January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a standard theatrical run for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the configuration is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a parallel release from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which work nicely for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 heftier brand moves. The month concludes 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 credible, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring stage 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 suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner evolves into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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

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 run into a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 severe boss battle to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that threads the dread through a minor’s flickering subjective lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. 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: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. 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 language and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 detail, audio design, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York my company and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.