Antediluvian Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

One chilling ghostly scare-fest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an ancient horror when guests become tools in a hellish ordeal. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish portrayal of endurance and age-old darkness that will remodel horror this scare season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric tale follows five people who snap to trapped in a wooded cabin under the sinister will of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a antiquated sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be shaken by a filmic presentation that blends intense horror with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the dark entities no longer form from beyond, but rather internally. This depicts the most hidden aspect of all involved. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a merciless struggle between light and darkness.


In a abandoned woodland, five friends find themselves confined under the dark influence and curse of a unidentified spirit. As the companions becomes incapacitated to break her curse, detached and preyed upon by presences beyond comprehension, they are compelled to battle their core terrors while the seconds without pause edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread escalates and partnerships shatter, demanding each cast member to rethink their values and the integrity of personal agency itself. The consequences mount with every second, delivering a horror experience that weaves together mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore basic terror, an entity that predates humanity, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and wrestling with a power that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that shift is haunting because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers from coast to coast can be part of this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first trailer, which has racked up over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these unholy truths about human nature.


For director insights, extra content, and alerts from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets domestic schedule fuses biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, set against legacy-brand quakes

Spanning grit-forward survival fare rooted in old testament echoes and extending to brand-name continuations in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated together with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors lock in tentpoles with known properties, as digital services pack the fall with fresh voices together with legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is carried on the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by 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. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. 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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes 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 goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive 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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 fright season: entries, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek: The fresh scare cycle stacks from day one with a January crush, after that stretches through June and July, and far into the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, inventive spins, and well-timed calendar placement. Studios and platforms are committing to efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre releases into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has proven to be the consistent option in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it catches and still buffer the risk when it misses. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize social chatter, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where resurrections and critical darlings proved there is demand for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with defined corridors, a pairing of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a utility player on the programming map. Horror can premiere on many corridors, deliver a simple premise for ad units and reels, and overperform with audiences that appear on first-look nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the title delivers. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence underscores comfort in that logic. The calendar starts with a weighty January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The program also shows the stronger partnership of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and roll out at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. Big banners are not just turning out another continuation. They are aiming to frame brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a tonal shift or a star attachment that connects a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to material texture, special makeup and concrete locations. That interplay gives 2026 a confident blend of home base and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a fan-service aware framework without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push leaning on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to renew creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be 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 creates space for a branding reveal to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a gritty, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a moderate cost. Look for a hard-R summer horror shot that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can amplify premium screens and convention buzz.

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 builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by careful craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries near their drops and making event-like go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic movies title. The appeal is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By count, 2026 tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is comforting enough to build pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps frame the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not obstruct a day-date move from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and expand the canvas. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror signal a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that elevates texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which play well in fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. 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 quiet contrast amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

February through May build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s founding notes. 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 devastated man’s digital partner shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 claw to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a little one’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan tethered to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, smart allocations, 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 visual texture, acoustics, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, 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, roll out exact trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.