Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One unnerving occult suspense film from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten curse when unknowns become puppets in a devilish experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of continuance and old world terror that will redefine the horror genre this Halloween season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric fearfest follows five unacquainted souls who wake up sealed in a isolated cottage under the malignant will of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a time-worn biblical force. Arm yourself to be seized by a audio-visual venture that blends bodily fright with biblical origins, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the dark entities no longer appear from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the most sinister layer of each of them. The result is a intense internal warfare where the suspense becomes a intense clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken outland, five souls find themselves isolated under the possessive dominion and control of a haunted person. As the companions becomes incapable to escape her will, left alone and tracked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are driven to acknowledge their inner horrors while the countdown brutally ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and links crack, urging each participant to rethink their true nature and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The tension accelerate with every tick, delivering a terror ride that combines ghostly evil with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore pure dread, an darkness from ancient eras, manipulating psychological breaks, and navigating a presence that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that turn is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure streamers around the globe can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Tune in for this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to dive into these unholy truths about inner darkness.


For film updates, special features, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 stateside slate integrates old-world possession, Indie Shockers, paired with IP aftershocks

Spanning survival horror infused with mythic scripture and including returning series plus focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most complex as well as intentionally scheduled year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones using marquee IP, at the same time platform operators stack the fall with debut heat set against ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is buoyed by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming terror season: entries, universe starters, together with A busy Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The current genre calendar packs in short order with a January crush, subsequently extends through summer corridors, and far into the December corridor, blending legacy muscle, new voices, and shrewd counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that frame horror entries into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has emerged as the dependable move in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it lands and still insulate the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget pictures can steer pop culture, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and festival-grade titles made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with intentional bunching, a mix of established brands and new packages, and a revived strategy on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and platforms.

Insiders argue the space now serves as a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can bow on numerous frames, yield a quick sell for promo reels and short-form placements, and outperform with moviegoers that turn out on advance nights and hold through the next weekend if the film delivers. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates confidence in that dynamic. The slate gets underway with a weighty January block, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a September to October window that stretches into spooky season and beyond. The grid also highlights the continuing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and storied titles. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title design that conveys a re-angled tone or a talent selection that reconnects a new entry to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring in-camera technique, real effects and site-specific worlds. That mix hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of home base and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a memory-charged angle without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by brand visuals, intro reveals, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick switches to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that threads affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are set up as auteur events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Look for a red-band summer horror rush that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. More about the author and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part horror of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that elevates both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video balances licensed films with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, confirming horror entries closer to drop and framing as events launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps frame the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The director conversations behind these films point to a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that spotlights aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which play well in convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month ends 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 real, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss battle to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that pipes the unease through a preteen’s wavering personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns check over here again, with a unlucky family caught in lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. 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 historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 bleak, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and camera work 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.