Age-old Dread Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

A terrifying otherworldly suspense story from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old dread when unfamiliar people become tokens in a demonic contest. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of living through and age-old darkness that will remodel horror this harvest season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and eerie fearfest follows five figures who snap to sealed in a unreachable cottage under the ominous will of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a timeless holy text monster. Be prepared to be hooked by a screen-based experience that weaves together visceral dread with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a mainstay foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is twisted when the malevolences no longer descend outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the most primal shade of the players. The result is a gripping mental war where the drama becomes a perpetual confrontation between good and evil.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five youths find themselves trapped under the possessive rule and domination of a shadowy female figure. As the group becomes helpless to combat her rule, severed and chased by creatures beyond reason, they are pushed to deal with their soulful dreads while the hours without pity pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension intensifies and ties dissolve, pushing each individual to doubt their self and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The threat mount with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that blends ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into raw dread, an evil from prehistory, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and examining a force that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that change is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences in all regions can engage with this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this unforgettable descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For teasers, production news, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar braids together myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, together with tentpole growls

From last-stand terror drawn from old testament echoes to returning series plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most complex combined with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses hold down the year by way of signature titles, as premium streamers flood the fall with discovery plays paired with ancient terrors. Meanwhile, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next fear slate: brand plays, original films, in tandem with A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The arriving scare year packs from day one with a January glut, from there carries through June and July, and continuing into the year-end corridor, fusing IP strength, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these releases into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has solidified as the bankable option in programming grids, a vertical that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that lean-budget fright engines can lead the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to original features that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across studios, with intentional bunching, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a recommitted emphasis on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can kick off on most weekends, offer a quick sell for marketing and social clips, and lead with patrons that respond on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the film satisfies. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern telegraphs trust in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January run, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that extends to the fright window and beyond. The calendar also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and scale up at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That fusion produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of comfort and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a classic-referencing angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an digital partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interweaves longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to dominate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can boost premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal navigate here build is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and widen scale. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that leverages the dread of a child’s mercurial interpretations. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and name-above-title eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll 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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. 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 period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, 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 surface detail, sound, and visuals 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 refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.