Ancient Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across global platforms

An eerie occult terror film from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an long-buried fear when unfamiliar people become pawns in a satanic ritual. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of resilience and age-old darkness that will revamp genre cinema this Halloween season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic film follows five individuals who find themselves ensnared in a wooded shelter under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be seized by a theatrical display that weaves together deep-seated panic with folklore, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the fiends no longer form beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This represents the grimmest version of these individuals. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the suspense becomes a relentless battle between innocence and sin.


In a remote natural abyss, five individuals find themselves caught under the ghastly control and grasp of a unknown figure. As the victims becomes powerless to reject her power, marooned and followed by terrors indescribable, they are required to battle their worst nightmares while the deathwatch harrowingly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and bonds collapse, compelling each survivor to reconsider their personhood and the concept of decision-making itself. The danger grow with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates occult fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dive into ancestral fear, an threat rooted in antiquity, influencing psychological breaks, and wrestling with a presence that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something past sanity. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers globally can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these evil-rooted truths about free will.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts weaves Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, set against brand-name tremors

Spanning survival horror drawn from legendary theology and onward to installment follow-ups together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted together with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors bookend the months using marquee IP, while subscription platforms stack the fall with fresh voices as well as scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is catching the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

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

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. 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
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming fear year to come: brand plays, original films, together with A packed Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The upcoming scare year clusters up front with a January glut, before it flows through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, combining brand equity, untold stories, and smart offsets. Distributors with platforms are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that transform these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the surest option in studio calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is an opening for varied styles, from series extensions to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with strategic blocks, a combination of brand names and novel angles, and a sharpened emphasis on release windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now behaves like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can launch on almost any weekend, yield a quick sell for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the title satisfies. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects conviction in that approach. The calendar launches with a crowded January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a September to October window that pushes into the fright window and into November. The schedule also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the proper time.

An added macro current is legacy care across interlocking continuities and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are working to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that signals a new vibe or a casting choice that bridges a latest entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on physical effects work, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend affords 2026 a strong blend of brand comfort and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking framework without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout anchored in classic imagery, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back eerie street stunts and brief clips that blurs intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are treated as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material 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+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with prestige directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, 2026 leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is anchored enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set help explain the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a parallel release from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind 2026 horror forecast a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 prickly boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance flips and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that interrogates the terror of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further extends again, with a fresh family snared by ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. 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-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured 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 landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early 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 different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc 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 pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can have a peek here deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.