Primeval Dread Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, landing October 2025 across leading streamers

One haunting unearthly nightmare movie from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an long-buried curse when passersby become proxies in a cursed game. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of resistance and prehistoric entity that will reshape genre cinema this autumn. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic suspense flick follows five characters who arise caught in a cut-off cabin under the menacing grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a legendary religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be enthralled by a immersive venture that weaves together soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the dark entities no longer form from an outside force, but rather from within. This illustrates the haunting aspect of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the narrative becomes a constant fight between heaven and hell.


In a bleak wilderness, five young people find themselves confined under the dark sway and grasp of a obscure character. As the team becomes powerless to break her will, severed and attacked by entities unimaginable, they are compelled to encounter their inner horrors while the countdown without pause edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and associations fracture, prompting each member to question their self and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The hazard intensify with every minute, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into primitive panic, an darkness beyond time, operating within emotional fractures, and questioning a darkness that threatens selfhood when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is unseeing until the takeover begins, and that transition is shocking because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering viewers globally can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic spiral into evil. Face *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For featurettes, special features, and announcements from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup weaves legend-infused possession, indie terrors, together with legacy-brand quakes

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in biblical myth as well as series comebacks in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most variegated paired with blueprinted year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners are anchoring the year using marquee IP, in tandem streaming platforms crowd the fall with new perspectives set against ancient terrors. On another front, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, 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. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. 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 operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new spook Year Ahead: follow-ups, fresh concepts, and also A stacked Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The current scare season packs right away with a January cluster, and then spreads through summer corridors, and running into the winter holidays, marrying brand equity, new voices, and well-timed offsets. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that transform genre titles into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the surest release in release plans, a space that can surge when it resonates and still insulate the exposure when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reminded greenlighters that responsibly budgeted chillers can command social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The momentum carried into the 2025 frame, where revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The combined impact for 2026 is a roster that shows rare alignment across studios, with defined corridors, a combination of brand names and new concepts, and a renewed strategy on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on PVOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can kick off on open real estate, offer a clean hook for ad units and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that appear on previews Thursday and return through the second weekend if the title delivers. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January band, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also shows the tightening integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a new tone or a casting move that reconnects a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are returning to material texture, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That fusion gives 2026 a smart balance of recognition and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a nostalgia-forward approach without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that hybridizes affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are presented as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, in-camera leaning approach can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror shock that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around environmental design, and creature design, elements that can lift premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and language, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that optimizes both launch urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with global originals and brief theater runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in back-catalog play, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and curated strips to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix originals and festival buys, confirming horror entries near launch and coalescing around debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for the title, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years announce the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not preclude a day-date try from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in big-format auditoriums. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease 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 designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone click to read more Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect 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.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 abrasive boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet 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 household haunting setup that routes the horror through a youth’s wavering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. 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 back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family tethered to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: active. 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 time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test great post to read screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from 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 fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent 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, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.