Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A hair-raising ghostly shockfest from creator / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric terror when outsiders become instruments in a diabolical ritual. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of endurance and ancient evil that will reimagine horror this ghoul season. Produced by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy feature follows five teens who emerge sealed in a cut-off cottage under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a female lead controlled by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Steel yourself to be shaken by a motion picture journey that fuses soul-chilling terror with folklore, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the beings no longer manifest from external sources, but rather internally. This illustrates the shadowy side of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling mind game where the tension becomes a relentless face-off between good and evil.


In a isolated wild, five young people find themselves caught under the fiendish dominion and grasp of a unknown woman. As the protagonists becomes submissive to escape her command, exiled and hunted by powers beyond comprehension, they are forced to battle their core terrors while the time relentlessly draws closer toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and connections splinter, urging each figure to evaluate their character and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The tension rise with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that combines mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel primitive panic, an force rooted in antiquity, working through our weaknesses, and confronting a evil that forces self-examination when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers no matter where they are can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Join this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these unholy truths about the soul.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and press updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. rollouts interlaces myth-forward possession, indie terrors, plus brand-name tremors

Running from life-or-death fear grounded in biblical myth and extending to returning series as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex plus precision-timed year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lock in tentpoles with known properties, even as premium streamers saturate the fall with debut heat together with mythic dread. In parallel, the art-house flank is surfing the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation 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.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. 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 forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fright year to come: returning titles, new stories, as well as A loaded Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The upcoming horror slate builds right away with a January bottleneck, after that spreads through summer corridors, and far into the festive period, fusing IP strength, original angles, and tactical counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are leaning into efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that pivot these offerings into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has established itself as the dependable lever in programming grids, a segment that can surge when it hits and still safeguard the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to leaders that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive the discourse, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is a market for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that seems notably aligned across the field, with obvious clusters, a blend of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized commitment on release windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with crowds that respond on previews Thursday and return through the second weekend if the title delivers. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects comfort in that logic. The slate begins with a weighty January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall corridor that extends to All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and expand at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is brand curation across connected story worlds and veteran brands. Studios are not just pushing another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that flags a reframed mood or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a classic era. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are celebrating practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That interplay hands the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and surprise, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, framing it as both a relay and a classic-mode character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a heritage-honoring mode without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Expect a marketing push rooted in brand visuals, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever tops horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, loss-driven, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to mirror creepy live activations and short-cut promos that hybridizes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered 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 permits a title drop to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are sold as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, prosthetic-heavy method can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a red-band summer horror surge that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart 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 charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that amplifies both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a new voice. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not block a hybrid test from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror hint at a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes grain and menace rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and technical spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser 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 aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which play well in booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror 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 holds.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 push to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that toys with the fright of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. 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 primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 value-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August weblink into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.