Ancient Horror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

A bone-chilling metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic evil when passersby become tokens in a supernatural contest. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of perseverance and forgotten curse that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic screenplay follows five characters who wake up trapped in a remote house under the dark influence of Kyra, a female presence occupied by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be captivated by a visual presentation that blends soul-chilling terror with timeless legends, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a enduring foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the demons no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This echoes the shadowy shade of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal identity crisis where the narrative becomes a unyielding face-off between virtue and vice.


In a remote wilderness, five campers find themselves sealed under the dark sway and domination of a enigmatic spirit. As the protagonists becomes powerless to deny her command, exiled and tracked by forces unnamable, they are confronted to wrestle with their core terrors while the deathwatch unforgivingly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and friendships break, coercing each individual to challenge their self and the principle of autonomy itself. The tension accelerate with every minute, delivering a paranormal ride that merges otherworldly panic with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover deep fear, an spirit from prehistory, influencing our fears, and questioning a spirit that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something darker than pain. She is clueless until the control shifts, and that conversion is eerie because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering subscribers globally can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to lovers of terror across nations.


Join this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and press updates directly from production, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. calendar weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Across pressure-cooker survival tales infused with biblical myth and including IP renewals and surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the richest along with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses set cornerstones through proven series, simultaneously OTT services front-load the fall with new voices in concert with primordial unease. On another front, the artisan tier is catching the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and 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. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

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.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

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

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: entries, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A loaded Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The current scare slate lines up in short order with a January crush, following that unfolds through peak season, and carrying into the year-end corridor, braiding brand heft, fresh ideas, and savvy offsets. Studios with streamers are focusing on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that transform these pictures into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the dependable swing in programming grids, a space that can expand when it performs and still buffer the drawdown when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that lean-budget genre plays can drive the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The energy pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings signaled there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across distributors, with strategic blocks, a blend of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated stance on exclusive windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the category now performs as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, offer a simple premise for spots and social clips, and overperform with crowds that turn out on early shows and hold through the second frame if the feature pays off. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals certainty in that logic. The year gets underway with a weighty January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a September to October window that stretches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The program also shows the increasing integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can platform a title, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Studios are not just mounting another entry. They are moving to present brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing real-world builds, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a confident blend of recognition and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a memory-charged campaign without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout stacked with iconic art, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, tragic, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an digital partner that shifts into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that mixes love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 sharper mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by minute detail and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a sequence that elevates both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival pickups, securing horror entries near their drops and turning into events releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. 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 sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent comps clarify the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films forecast a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 abrasive boss work to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 household haunting chiller that manipulates the dread of a child’s uncertain point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet this website spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 maximize those pockets. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.