Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This blood-curdling occult nightmare movie from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an archaic entity when guests become conduits in a demonic ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of perseverance and forgotten curse that will alter fear-driven cinema this autumn. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and emotionally thick screenplay follows five figures who suddenly rise stranded in a secluded hideaway under the sinister influence of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a millennia-old biblical demon. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a screen-based adventure that fuses primitive horror with folklore, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the spirits no longer arise externally, but rather internally. This echoes the grimmest corner of the players. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the plotline becomes a perpetual conflict between right and wrong.


In a unforgiving woodland, five individuals find themselves caught under the ominous influence and infestation of a secretive person. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to resist her manipulation, severed and attacked by creatures impossible to understand, they are obligated to face their inner demons while the seconds without pause strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and teams collapse, demanding each participant to challenge their identity and the idea of independent thought itself. The hazard mount with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates mystical fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel deep fear, an presence from prehistory, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and highlighting a spirit that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that metamorphosis is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers around the globe can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Join this unforgettable voyage through terror. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these dark realities about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, extra content, and promotions via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. release slate integrates Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, paired with IP aftershocks

Ranging from last-stand terror steeped in scriptural legend and stretching into legacy revivals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified combined with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, as digital services crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is propelled by the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal begins the calendar with a headline swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in 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.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

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 looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

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 the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next Horror season: next chapters, original films, plus A brimming Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The incoming horror season builds immediately with a January wave, then rolls through the mid-year, and far into the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, untold stories, and smart counterweight. Distributors with platforms are prioritizing smart costs, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that convert these offerings into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has turned into the consistent option in studio slates, a vertical that can expand when it catches and still limit the floor when it misses. After 2023 showed top brass that efficiently budgeted entries can drive audience talk, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and stealth successes. The tailwind flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles highlighted there is an opening for diverse approaches, from legacy continuations to original features that travel well. The end result for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with planned clusters, a harmony of brand names and untested plays, and a recommitted commitment on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the space now works like a plug-and-play option on the calendar. Horror can roll out on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on advance nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the offering hits. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates assurance in that setup. The year starts with a heavy January band, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a fall corridor that runs into spooky season and into early November. The schedule also illustrates the deeper integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can launch in limited release, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just turning out another installment. They are looking to package story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a logo package that signals a tonal shift or a casting move that binds a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the high-profile originals are championing material texture, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That convergence hands 2026 a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two headline projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a throwback-friendly strategy without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave centered on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an AI companion that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that fuses intimacy and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are set up as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward strategy can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Look for a red-band summer horror surge that pushes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a reset 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 franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 rooted in meticulous craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that maximizes both premiere heat and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog discovery, using timely promos, fright rows, and editorial rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries near launch and elevating as drops go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of precision releases and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. this page RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not hamper a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner unfolds into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 fight to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting tale that manipulates the fear of click site a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. 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: TBA. Production: advancing. 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 period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. 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 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, 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 detail, audio design, 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 Looks Exciting

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.