Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A terrifying mystic fright fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient entity when unfamiliar people become pawns in a diabolical experiment. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping episode of staying alive and forgotten curse that will reshape genre cinema this spooky time. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick suspense flick follows five young adults who suddenly rise confined in a isolated shelter under the sinister influence of Kyra, a cursed figure controlled by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be drawn in by a audio-visual display that combines bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the forces no longer develop from an outside force, but rather deep within. This portrays the most primal facet of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the conflict becomes a brutal clash between heaven and hell.


In a remote wilderness, five friends find themselves contained under the malicious grip and haunting of a unidentified female presence. As the companions becomes unresisting to deny her control, abandoned and attacked by spirits unimaginable, they are pushed to confront their inner horrors while the doomsday meter unforgivingly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and friendships splinter, prompting each soul to rethink their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The stakes climb with every breath, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract pure dread, an darkness from prehistory, influencing mental cracks, and exposing a curse that strips down our being when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra asked for exploring something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences around the globe can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this haunted descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For director insights, production insights, and news directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar fuses legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, and IP aftershocks

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare saturated with biblical myth and including legacy revivals alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most textured plus precision-timed year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, in tandem streamers prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with old-world menace. At the same time, festival-forward creators is propelled by the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal begins the calendar with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

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’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into 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 initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming spook release year: next chapters, Originals, together with A Crowded Calendar tailored for screams

Dek The arriving scare slate crams in short order with a January glut, after that spreads through June and July, and straight through the late-year period, marrying brand heft, new concepts, and well-timed calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and buzz-forward plans that frame these films into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has emerged as the predictable option in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it connects and still mitigate the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed top brass that mid-range pictures can command mainstream conversation, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The run flowed into 2025, where revived properties and awards-minded projects confirmed there is a market for many shades, from series extensions to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the grid. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a quick sell for creative and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on advance nights and sustain through the second weekend if the release pays off. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits assurance in that equation. The year launches with a busy January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also underscores the expanded integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A companion trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just pushing another next film. They are seeking to position continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that anchors a next film to a heyday. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are doubling down on practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That blend offers 2026 a lively combination of trust and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a memory-charged strategy without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout leaning on classic imagery, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an machine companion that escalates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that fuses intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken 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 sets up a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror rush that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can boost large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not foreclose a day-date try from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which play well in booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 heftier brand moves. The month finishes 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 meaningful, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy have a peek here and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. 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 sorrowing man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that refracts terror through a child’s volatile POV. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set 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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, 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, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.