Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A frightening mystic suspense story from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient dread when unfamiliar people become proxies in a satanic struggle. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of survival and age-old darkness that will remodel fear-driven cinema this autumn. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and gothic tale follows five young adults who regain consciousness sealed in a isolated structure under the hostile power of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be shaken by a narrative display that fuses raw fear with biblical origins, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the beings no longer manifest externally, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the shadowy layer of the players. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the plotline becomes a perpetual battle between right and wrong.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the ominous dominion and inhabitation of a elusive female figure. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to resist her control, severed and preyed upon by terrors indescribable, they are forced to acknowledge their darkest emotions while the timeline relentlessly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and ties disintegrate, driving each person to doubt their essence and the idea of conscious will itself. The cost intensify with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that harmonizes mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken primal fear, an force beyond recorded history, manipulating psychological breaks, and questioning a entity that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the curse activates, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers around the globe can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first trailer, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Witness this heart-stopping descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these unholy truths about our species.


For bonus footage, production insights, and announcements from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 stateside slate melds myth-forward possession, indie terrors, set against returning-series thunder

Spanning survivor-centric dread steeped in near-Eastern lore to brand-name continuations together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered paired with intentionally scheduled year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios hold down the year through proven series, concurrently OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions plus ancestral chills. On the festival side, the art-house flank is drafting behind the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including 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 feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director 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 nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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 canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops 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, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. 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
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. 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.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming spook Year Ahead: Sequels, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The new scare year clusters up front with a January wave, subsequently stretches through peak season, and far into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Studios with streamers are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that pivot these releases into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror sector has become the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is room for many shades, from series extensions to fresh IP that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived emphasis on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on most weekends, deliver a tight logline for ad units and vertical videos, and outpace with crowds that turn out on Thursday nights and stick through the next pass if the picture delivers. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence signals trust in that model. The calendar begins with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The map also underscores the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is brand management across shared universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another continuation. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields 2026 a healthy mix of recognition and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a heritage-honoring strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, on-set effects led treatment can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror built on rigorous craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using timely promos, October hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival buys, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern audio 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 flagged a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception drives. Be ready for 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 as a pair, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a dual release from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries point to a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on my company the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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 unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a remote island as the chain of command flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 domestic haunting story that toys with the dread of a child’s shaky POV. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 press those advantages. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.