Ancient Horror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

This terrifying occult nightmare movie from writer / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient horror when unfamiliar people become victims in a supernatural maze. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful account of perseverance and old world terror that will transform genre cinema this season. Crafted by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy motion picture follows five individuals who arise sealed in a cut-off cabin under the sinister influence of Kyra, a possessed female haunted by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be gripped by a cinematic ride that combines primitive horror with biblical origins, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic tradition in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the fiends no longer develop from an outside force, but rather internally. This echoes the darkest facet of each of them. The result is a intense internal warfare where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing clash between good and evil.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five friends find themselves trapped under the dark dominion and overtake of a unidentified being. As the team becomes incapacitated to combat her will, cut off and pursued by presences ungraspable, they are cornered to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the clock coldly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and bonds fracture, prompting each protagonist to contemplate their identity and the idea of self-determination itself. The hazard mount with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together mystical fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dig into instinctual horror, an darkness that predates humanity, working through our fears, and challenging a darkness that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing viewers globally can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has gathered over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this mind-warping journey into fear. Join *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For behind-the-scenes access, extra content, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, and Franchise Rumbles

Running from grit-forward survival fare infused with mythic scripture through to franchise returns and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned in tandem with calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios stabilize the year through proven series, concurrently premium streamers front-load the fall with unboxed visions alongside old-world menace. On the festival side, indie storytellers is propelled by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. 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. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. 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. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching chiller slate: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The emerging scare year builds immediately with a January pile-up, from there rolls through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, marrying marquee clout, original angles, and calculated counterweight. The major players are embracing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that frame these films into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has become the consistent lever in studio calendars, a genre that can spike when it performs and still protect the exposure when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for executives that lean-budget genre plays can steer pop culture, 2024 held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The run translated to 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is an opening for varied styles, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with strategic blocks, a spread of household franchises and new concepts, and a tightened priority on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now behaves like a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can open on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and platform-native cuts, and over-index with demo groups that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the follow-up frame if the picture works. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration exhibits conviction in that engine. The year launches with a thick January block, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a late-year stretch that runs into the Halloween corridor and into early November. The layout also shows the increasing integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can platform a title, grow buzz, and grow at the timely point.

An added macro current is brand strategy across connected story worlds and storied titles. Big banners are not just making another continuation. They are trying to present continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a latest entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are favoring practical craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence yields 2026 a lively combination of trust and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile plays that bracket the tone have a peek at this web-site map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a handoff and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a memory-charged angle without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that becomes a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October this page 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led execution can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Look for a splatter summer horror rush that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a reimagined restart 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 focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines acquired titles with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many 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 break out if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 produced back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered 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 creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which fit with con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. 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 bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 stiff, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Young & Cursed Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-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 tough boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that leverages the fear of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 value-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, 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 detail, soundcraft, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.