Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One spine-tingling ghostly suspense film from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless malevolence when unrelated individuals become victims in a satanic game. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of living through and old world terror that will redefine the horror genre this ghoul season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy motion picture follows five people who suddenly rise imprisoned in a wooded dwelling under the malignant rule of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a ancient biblical demon. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a visual outing that integrates raw fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the monsters no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the malevolent version of each of them. The result is a gripping mental war where the drama becomes a perpetual contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five young people find themselves contained under the malicious dominion and curse of a uncanny female presence. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to combat her will, abandoned and tracked by powers impossible to understand, they are thrust to stand before their greatest panics while the final hour without pity edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and ties splinter, compelling each cast member to evaluate their true nature and the concept of liberty itself. The pressure amplify with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that fuses demonic fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke primitive panic, an entity from prehistory, working through psychological breaks, and testing a presence that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that transition is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing households anywhere can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Experience this unforgettable spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these chilling revelations about our species.


For cast commentary, production insights, and news from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule fuses biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, paired with IP aftershocks

Beginning with survivor-centric dread rooted in ancient scripture as well as series comebacks as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios bookend the months by way of signature titles, simultaneously streamers crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is riding the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the WB camp bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

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 a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. 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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next genre year to come: follow-ups, new stories, paired with A hectic Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The current genre calendar loads immediately with a January crush, and then runs through the summer months, and running into the holiday frame, braiding series momentum, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. Studios with streamers are leaning into tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it hits and still limit the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 demonstrated to studio brass that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can shape pop culture, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across studios, with strategic blocks, a balance of brand names and new packages, and a recommitted priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the category now serves as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, furnish a simple premise for ad units and social clips, and over-index with fans that arrive on preview nights and stick through the sophomore frame if the offering fires. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a front-loaded January band, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a fall corridor that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The gridline also includes the tightening integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the proper time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the top original plays are championing practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and freshness, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two headline plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a nostalgia-forward approach without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout centered on signature symbols, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will seek broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are presented as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror blast that leans into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is positioning as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video combines outside acquisitions with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, October hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival pickups, timing horror entries near their drops and turning into events releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps frame the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which work nicely for booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is jammed. 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 big-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 makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first this contact form 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 encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: tone-first 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 difficult boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. 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 reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that routes the horror through a young child’s flickering point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.