Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

This eerie paranormal scare-fest from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric entity when passersby become proxies in a dark ordeal. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense chronicle of struggle and mythic evil that will revamp terror storytelling this October. Produced by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves caught in a secluded dwelling under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Get ready to be absorbed by a immersive presentation that fuses bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a historical foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the presences no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This mirrors the shadowy dimension of the group. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the story becomes a brutal fight between right and wrong.


In a wilderness-stricken forest, five teens find themselves marooned under the evil dominion and haunting of a secretive woman. As the youths becomes vulnerable to deny her control, marooned and hunted by powers unimaginable, they are required to acknowledge their greatest panics while the countdown without pity ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and ties crack, urging each participant to doubt their existence and the concept of independent thought itself. The threat surge with every short lapse, delivering a horror experience that intertwines supernatural terror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover instinctual horror, an malevolence older than civilization itself, influencing our fears, and highlighting a presence that redefines identity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that turn is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers globally can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, bringing the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this visceral fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to face these unholy truths about the human condition.


For sneak peeks, special features, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts interlaces legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, and IP aftershocks

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by scriptural legend and onward to brand-name continuations and incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the richest plus precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors hold down the year through proven series, as digital services prime the fall with debut heat set against primordial unease. On the festival side, independent banners is catching the carry from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

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

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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

M3GAN 2.0 slots 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.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. 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

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The coming 2026 genre slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A brimming Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek: The current scare year packs right away with a January cluster, then carries through the mid-year, and carrying into the year-end corridor, combining marquee clout, creative pitches, and tactical counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and short-form initiatives that frame these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has emerged as the sturdy release in release plans, a corner that can grow when it hits and still protect the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured studio brass that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer the zeitgeist, the following year kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The trend carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles made clear there is room for a variety of tones, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a balance of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened focus on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can bow on virtually any date, provide a quick sell for marketing and reels, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and continue through the subsequent weekend if the offering pays off. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 layout shows confidence in that equation. The year gets underway with a front-loaded January window, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The calendar also reflects the tightening integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across unified worlds and heritage properties. The studios are not just turning out another continuation. They are trying to present continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that reconnects a upcoming film to a early run. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing material texture, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That alloy offers 2026 a smart balance of familiarity and surprise, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a heritage-honoring strategy without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in classic imagery, early character teases, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that unfolds into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that threads affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books 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 listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror shock that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has recalibrated 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 re-emerges in what the studio is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around environmental design, and creature work, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fan-forward engagement.

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 carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on obsessive craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that amplifies both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, securing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to scale. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years clarify the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not obstruct a parallel release from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV 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 two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which align with convention floor stunts and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

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 face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 work to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that manipulates the panic of a child’s wobbly perceptions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family anchored to old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. 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 primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively imp source prepping for a holiday slot. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.