Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

An spine-tingling supernatural fright fest from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic force when unrelated individuals become pawns in a demonic maze. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of living through and ancient evil that will remodel terror storytelling this harvest season. Guided by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie screenplay follows five teens who wake up trapped in a wooded shack under the malevolent command of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Be prepared to be shaken by a big screen adventure that harmonizes bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the beings no longer descend from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This represents the darkest corner of the cast. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the conflict becomes a relentless clash between virtue and vice.


In a haunting wilderness, five adults find themselves confined under the ominous influence and haunting of a enigmatic female presence. As the youths becomes unresisting to break her power, severed and targeted by powers mind-shattering, they are thrust to battle their soulful dreads while the hours unceasingly pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and connections break, urging each person to question their values and the integrity of volition itself. The threat escalate with every tick, delivering a terror ride that connects supernatural terror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into pure dread, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, influencing fragile psyche, and testing a power that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering streamers no matter where they are can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this gripping voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these dark realities about the soul.


For film updates, set experiences, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. lineup Mixes legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, and franchise surges

Moving from life-or-death fear steeped in old testament echoes and onward to returning series alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated along with intentionally scheduled year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, while subscription platforms saturate the fall with debut heat in concert with scriptural shivers. At the same time, festival-forward creators is carried on the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. 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.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, 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: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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



The next scare Year Ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming horror calendar loads up front with a January logjam, before it unfolds through peak season, and carrying into the festive period, balancing marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterplay. The major players are prioritizing lean spends, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that frame these releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The field has shown itself to be the surest counterweight in studio calendars, a space that can scale when it lands and still buffer the risk when it misses. After 2023 reminded leaders that cost-conscious horror vehicles can command mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into 2025, where revivals and critical darlings confirmed there is an opening for different modes, from returning installments to original features that export nicely. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a blend of familiar brands and original hooks, and a revived focus on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and streaming.

Planners observe the category now behaves like a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can debut on open real estate, offer a simple premise for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that arrive on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits certainty in that approach. The slate opens with a stacked January band, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into the next week. The calendar also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and move wide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across shared universes and long-running brands. The companies are not just releasing another installment. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new tone or a talent selection that bridges a new entry to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and vivid settings. That fusion provides 2026 a smart balance of known notes and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push centered on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man activates an digital partner that mutates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny live moments and brief clips that interlaces longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood 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 creates space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-first mix can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around mythos, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and convention buzz.

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 extends Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that optimizes both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed content with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, October hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival additions, slotting horror entries near launch and eventizing releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two IP plays. 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 brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, have a peek at these guys shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps contextualize the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a dual release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which align with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller 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 creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes 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 leads 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 tough boss try to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 household haunting story that twists the fear of a child’s shaky perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 shock 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.