Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One bone-chilling paranormal suspense film from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless dread when guests become instruments in a demonic contest. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of resilience and ancient evil that will alter genre cinema this harvest season. Crafted by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie feature follows five characters who regain consciousness trapped in a wooded hideaway under the ominous will of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a legendary holy text monster. Steel yourself to be captivated by a motion picture ride that harmonizes primitive horror with mystical narratives, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established pillar in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the presences no longer originate from beyond, but rather deep within. This portrays the deepest element of all involved. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the events becomes a perpetual confrontation between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five campers find themselves stuck under the malevolent grip and inhabitation of a shadowy female figure. As the victims becomes unable to reject her will, marooned and chased by evils impossible to understand, they are compelled to deal with their core terrors while the final hour coldly pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and relationships crack, demanding each person to challenge their personhood and the integrity of liberty itself. The pressure mount with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into basic terror, an power rooted in antiquity, feeding on inner turmoil, and exposing a being that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring viewers in all regions can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these terrifying truths about the soul.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 American release plan weaves biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, together with franchise surges

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with near-Eastern lore and extending to returning series paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned along with deliberate year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously streamers front-load the fall with fresh voices as well as legend-coded dread. At the same time, indie storytellers is propelled by the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 spook slate: continuations, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar Built For frights

Dek The upcoming genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into lean spends, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that elevate horror entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable swing in studio slates, a lane that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded decision-makers that cost-conscious horror vehicles can galvanize audience talk, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where returns and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for different modes, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the field, with intentional bunching, a balance of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can kick off on most weekends, offer a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and outperform with fans that turn out on first-look nights and stick through the second weekend if the title lands. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates assurance in that equation. The slate opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a September to October window that pushes into the fright window and past the holiday. The layout also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the strategic time.

A companion trend is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another follow-up. They are aiming to frame story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a ensemble decision that binds a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a roots-evoking treatment without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that unfolds into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-form creative that melds devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward strategy can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that optimizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. 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 together, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April this page 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines 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 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that refracts terror through a preteen’s shifting subjective lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned 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 flares, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 sleeper chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

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

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.