Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A hair-raising otherworldly thriller from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten force when newcomers become instruments in a cursed trial. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of staying alive and old world terror that will reshape horror this scare season. Directed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody fearfest follows five unknowns who regain consciousness confined in a far-off cabin under the malevolent sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a antiquated biblical force. Prepare to be absorbed by a immersive ride that merges instinctive fear with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the fiends no longer develop from beyond, but rather inside them. This suggests the most terrifying corner of the players. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the tension becomes a brutal contest between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving woodland, five campers find themselves contained under the malicious dominion and domination of a secretive female figure. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to resist her will, left alone and tracked by beings mind-shattering, they are confronted to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the clock without pause edges forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and links dissolve, pushing each character to scrutinize their values and the idea of autonomy itself. The threat rise with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract basic terror, an power that predates humanity, filtering through emotional fractures, and navigating a power that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that pivot is shocking because it is so deep.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans across the world can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original clip, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Join this haunted voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate melds biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, paired with franchise surges

Spanning endurance-driven terror inspired by legendary theology and onward to IP renewals in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, concurrently streamers pack the fall with new perspectives and ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is surfing the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching Horror Year Ahead: brand plays, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for Scares

Dek: The new genre slate clusters right away with a January cluster, then runs through the warm months, and far into the holidays, braiding name recognition, untold stories, and smart counterplay. Studios and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in distribution calendars, a category that can expand when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that mid-range horror vehicles can steer audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The tailwind fed into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries showed there is appetite for varied styles, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with defined corridors, a pairing of established brands and fresh ideas, and a refocused eye on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now serves as a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can roll out on open real estate, yield a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with patrons that line up on early shows and hold through the second frame if the movie works. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout indicates conviction in that logic. The slate kicks off with a loaded January window, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a October build that stretches into the Halloween corridor and into early November. The gridline also reflects the increasing integration of specialized labels and digital platforms that can platform a title, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is brand management across linked properties and heritage properties. The companies are not just turning out another entry. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that reconnects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are embracing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That mix produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of familiarity and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a relay and a heritage-centered character study. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a classic-referencing treatment without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will chase large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and bite-size content that interlaces affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to own 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Digital platform strategies

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered horror movies path that enhances both week-one demand and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using timely promos, genre hubs, and featured rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival wins, dating horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of precision releases and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, upgraded for modern sound and image. 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 telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, Young & Cursed stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has helped for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns outline the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a dual release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries signal a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month closes 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 tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back 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: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control balance flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that channels the fear through a preteen’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household snared by residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the screams sell the seats.