Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

One frightening spiritual horror tale from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic dread when unrelated individuals become instruments in a hellish struggle. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of continuance and old world terror that will revolutionize the fear genre this cool-weather season. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic tale follows five figures who suddenly rise trapped in a wilderness-bound shelter under the sinister power of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be hooked by a big screen journey that blends primitive horror with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is twisted when the monsters no longer come from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This portrays the grimmest version of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling emotional conflict where the story becomes a intense struggle between innocence and sin.


In a haunting natural abyss, five campers find themselves isolated under the fiendish presence and domination of a unidentified entity. As the ensemble becomes helpless to combat her manipulation, marooned and tracked by forces beyond comprehension, they are made to reckon with their core terrors while the deathwatch unforgivingly moves toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and friendships shatter, pressuring each individual to challenge their character and the nature of autonomy itself. The risk magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that integrates otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into ancestral fear, an entity beyond recorded history, working through psychological breaks, and navigating a spirit that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the invasion happens, and that conversion is haunting because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing fans internationally can survive this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Join this heart-stopping path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these terrifying truths about inner darkness.


For featurettes, production insights, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus domestic schedule integrates biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, plus IP aftershocks

Across last-stand terror infused with old testament echoes to returning series alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned together with blueprinted year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners hold down the year with established lines, in parallel streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined 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 project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

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 comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching chiller calendar year ahead: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A jammed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The arriving terror cycle builds from the jump with a January pile-up, after that spreads through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are relying on tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that turn these releases into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can grow when it hits and still mitigate the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year signaled to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted shockers can lead the national conversation, 2024 continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The trend pushed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films proved there is a lane for varied styles, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that play globally. The result for 2026 is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a blend of known properties and fresh ideas, and a re-energized strategy on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and home platforms.

Schedulers say the space now operates like a versatile piece on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on almost any weekend, yield a sharp concept for ad units and shorts, and exceed norms with fans that come out on early shows and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the title hits. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs comfort in that model. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall corridor that extends to the fright window and beyond. The schedule also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and roll out at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and veteran brands. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are trying to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting move that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are embracing practical craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That fusion provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a roots-evoking campaign without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push fueled by classic imagery, character-first teases, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE launches have a peek at these guys January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that fuses longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by obsessive craft and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to scale. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The standing approach is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is familiar enough to build pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns outline the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind this slate hint at a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday useful reference gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 abrasive boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting tale that toys with the unease of a child’s wobbly senses. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead 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 win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.