Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

This frightening metaphysical terror film from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an age-old entity when unknowns become puppets in a dark ritual. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of staying alive and mythic evil that will redefine genre cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and cinematic thriller follows five people who emerge stranded in a unreachable structure under the menacing sway of Kyra, a central character occupied by a millennia-old biblical demon. Steel yourself to be seized by a motion picture experience that weaves together bodily fright with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the entities no longer descend outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This marks the grimmest aspect of the cast. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a brutal push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five adults find themselves isolated under the possessive grip and overtake of a haunted person. As the protagonists becomes unable to evade her manipulation, marooned and stalked by presences impossible to understand, they are obligated to reckon with their soulful dreads while the time without pause runs out toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and friendships crack, compelling each survivor to contemplate their self and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The hazard surge with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that marries paranormal dread with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into core terror, an curse born of forgotten ages, filtering through our fears, and exposing a entity that strips down our being when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that turn is shocking because it is so private.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing households across the world can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For previews, special features, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus domestic schedule integrates biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, and brand-name tremors

Across grit-forward survival fare inspired by ancient scripture and extending to installment follow-ups alongside focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the richest in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios stabilize the year using marquee IP, concurrently SVOD players stack the fall with fresh voices paired with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is carried on the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

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.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next scare cycle: Sequels, filmmaker-first projects, together with A Crowded Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The incoming horror slate crowds in short order with a January pile-up, after that runs through the mid-year, and continuing into the winter holidays, braiding marquee clout, creative pitches, and well-timed counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are committing to right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that shape the slate’s entries into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has proven to be the dependable lever in distribution calendars, a corner that can scale when it clicks and still limit the liability when it falls short. After 2023 showed greenlighters that lean-budget pictures can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The tailwind flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays made clear there is space for varied styles, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of legacy names and new packages, and a reinvigorated eye on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now acts as a schedule utility on the slate. Horror can premiere on most weekends, furnish a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and maintain momentum through the week two if the offering works. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence shows faith in that setup. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of indie arms and platforms that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across shared IP webs and established properties. Major shops are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a latest entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and discovery, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a fan-service aware bent without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign rooted in signature symbols, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that blurs romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are marketed as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 minute detail and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves library titles with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival grabs, timing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is known enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps frame the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled 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 proceeds 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 lensed sequentially, enables marketing to thread films through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which fit with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month concludes 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 formidable, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. 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 PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to 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 bereaved man’s virtual companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power balance tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that mediates the fear via a child’s wavering perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

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 comic send-up that targets current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 breaks out, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. 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-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors 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.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in check over here the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and framing 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, 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, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.