Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

One frightening supernatural shockfest from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten terror when passersby become victims in a diabolical trial. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of continuance and ancient evil that will reshape fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric thriller follows five unacquainted souls who wake up confined in a remote cabin under the menacing grip of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be shaken by a audio-visual spectacle that combines bodily fright with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is turned on its head when the forces no longer emerge from external sources, but rather inside them. This illustrates the haunting aspect of the protagonists. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a ongoing fight between moral forces.


In a remote forest, five souls find themselves sealed under the dark dominion and overtake of a uncanny female figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to break her power, isolated and preyed upon by evils inconceivable, they are cornered to deal with their inner horrors while the countdown ruthlessly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and bonds crack, prompting each figure to evaluate their identity and the notion of decision-making itself. The danger climb with every breath, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to draw upon elemental fright, an power born of forgotten ages, manipulating fragile psyche, and navigating a presence that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so private.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households internationally can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this cinematic exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these dark realities about human nature.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 stateside slate weaves primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, and returning-series thunder

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with biblical myth all the way to series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered in tandem with precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously OTT services saturate the fall with fresh voices paired with ancient terrors. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is surfing the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

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

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

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

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fear release year: next chapters, new stories, And A brimming Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The incoming horror calendar crowds in short order with a January glut, before it carries through the mid-year, and well into the festive period, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and shrewd counterplay. Studios with streamers are doubling down on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the surest tool in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it hits and still safeguard the drag when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to executives that disciplined-budget entries can shape the discourse, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The momentum fed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays proved there is appetite for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that perform internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of known properties and first-time concepts, and a recommitted emphasis on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and streaming.

Buyers contend the space now works like a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can roll out on nearly any frame, offer a tight logline for marketing and platform-native cuts, and over-index with fans that lean in on preview nights and sustain through the second frame if the entry works. Following a production delay era, the 2026 setup telegraphs assurance in that setup. The calendar starts with a heavy January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while saving space for a autumn stretch that stretches into late October and into the next week. The program also highlights the continuing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across shared universes and legacy franchises. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing delivers 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and surprise, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a relay and a back-to-basics character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an machine companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning strategy can feel prestige on a efficient spend. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shot that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that enhances both initial urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival additions, timing horror entries near launch and staging as events releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of precision releases and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling 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 clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Watch 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 jointly, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. this content Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the year’s horror suggest a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser 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 red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which favor fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month ends 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 meaningful, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s imp source DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss claw to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting story that refracts terror through a kid’s shifting perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. 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: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. 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 era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundscape, and picture 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 in place. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.