Antediluvian Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

A eerie spiritual fear-driven tale from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic malevolence when foreigners become pawns in a supernatural contest. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of endurance and old world terror that will resculpt genre cinema this spooky time. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive feature follows five figures who suddenly rise imprisoned in a unreachable structure under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a female lead consumed by a antiquated ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a audio-visual display that harmonizes bone-deep fear with biblical origins, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is subverted when the fiends no longer come from beyond, but rather inside them. This echoes the most terrifying element of each of them. The result is a harrowing mind game where the narrative becomes a merciless tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a remote woodland, five souls find themselves stuck under the fiendish rule and spiritual invasion of a unknown character. As the youths becomes submissive to fight her will, cut off and followed by presences unfathomable, they are pushed to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the clock mercilessly strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and relationships erode, forcing each individual to evaluate their true nature and the notion of liberty itself. The risk escalate with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to extract instinctual horror, an presence that existed before mankind, working through emotional fractures, and confronting a power that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users from coast to coast can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this gripping voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these terrifying truths about existence.


For film updates, set experiences, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts melds ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, and franchise surges

Spanning life-or-death fear infused with ancient scripture and onward to returning series plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured in tandem with intentionally scheduled year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios set cornerstones with established lines, as SVOD players prime the fall with fresh voices in concert with old-world menace. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is carried on the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

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

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The coming 2026 fear cycle: brand plays, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek The brand-new horror year clusters up front with a January logjam, thereafter extends through June and July, and continuing into the winter holidays, blending brand equity, novel approaches, and tactical offsets. The major players are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-driven marketing that pivot genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has emerged as the predictable option in distribution calendars, a genre that can lift when it lands and still mitigate the exposure when it fails to connect. After 2023 demonstrated to executives that lean-budget scare machines can shape cultural conversation, 2024 continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The run rolled into 2025, where returns and premium-leaning entries highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a spread of established brands and new pitches, and a tightened stance on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and home streaming.

Schedulers say the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the calendar. Horror can open on numerous frames, supply a clean hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and outperform with demo groups that come out on preview nights and stay strong through the next pass if the release connects. After a production delay era, the 2026 mapping shows trust in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and into early November. The map also illustrates the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is series management across linked properties and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just pushing another follow-up. They are setting up brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that flags a fresh attitude or a casting move that bridges a new entry to a early run. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are embracing physical effects work, practical gags and concrete locations. That combination hands the 2026 slate a healthy mix of comfort and surprise, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a classic-referencing campaign without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push rooted in signature symbols, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and short reels that melds attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as 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 preserves a proper title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s releases are sold as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, on-set effects led method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror blast that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a new take 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 fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature work, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that boosts both launch urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, locking in horror entries near launch and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will operate the Get More Info filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a dual release from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that pipes the unease through a youngster’s unsteady perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 genre lampoon that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for 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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured 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 debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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 journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.