Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

One blood-curdling unearthly fear-driven tale from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic dread when newcomers become puppets in a devilish struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of endurance and forgotten curse that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic film follows five teens who find themselves stranded in a hidden hideaway under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a timeless sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be captivated by a narrative ride that combines bone-deep fear with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the demons no longer descend outside the characters, but rather from within. This marks the most hidden part of the group. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving confrontation between moral forces.


In a barren outland, five figures find themselves cornered under the unholy sway and haunting of a secretive female figure. As the team becomes incapacitated to reject her manipulation, isolated and tracked by spirits ungraspable, they are compelled to battle their inner horrors while the hours without pity winds toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension intensifies and friendships shatter, pressuring each character to examine their personhood and the structure of personal agency itself. The hazard escalate with every minute, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke deep fear, an curse before modern man, emerging via psychological breaks, and questioning a curse that questions who we are when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is ignorant until the entity awakens, and that evolution is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring streamers internationally can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this cinematic spiral into evil. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these terrifying truths about mankind.


For director insights, production news, and news from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





The horror genre’s inflection point: 2025 across markets domestic schedule weaves ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, paired with series shake-ups

Running from grit-forward survival fare rooted in legendary theology and including franchise returns paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered plus calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios bookend the months by way of signature titles, in parallel OTT services saturate the fall with debut heat in concert with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, indie storytellers is buoyed by the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal kicks off the frame with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at 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.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
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 extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching fear slate: entries, universe starters, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh terror season loads in short order with a January wave, subsequently extends through summer, and running into the winter holidays, blending marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Studios and platforms are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that frame genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has turned into the dependable play in annual schedules, a corner that can lift when it performs and still mitigate the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can lead the discourse, the following year extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays signaled there is appetite for varied styles, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across distributors, with strategic blocks, a mix of legacy names and new pitches, and a recommitted eye on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now operates like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can arrive on virtually any date, offer a clear pitch for marketing and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with fans that appear on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering connects. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows comfort in that engine. The slate commences with a stacked January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The calendar also features the expanded integration of indie arms and subscription services that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just turning out another follow-up. They are working to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that suggests a new tone or a casting choice that reconnects a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a legacy-leaning strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run built on brand visuals, character previews, and a rollout cadence landing toward 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that melds longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are framed as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can stoke PLF interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by careful craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that amplifies both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video will mix licensed content with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival buys, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of precision releases and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with award winners or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder movies often work as partners, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is recognizable enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns frame the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a parallel release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind this slate indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which favor fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that refracts terror through a little one’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody reboot that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography 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 another family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. 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 spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean have a peek here 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 mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, 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 tactility, sound, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.