Primordial Evil Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

This blood-curdling supernatural shockfest from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an ancient malevolence when unknowns become proxies in a dark trial. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing chronicle of struggle and age-old darkness that will reimagine the horror genre this Halloween season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody film follows five unacquainted souls who awaken sealed in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the sinister will of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a biblical-era biblical demon. Steel yourself to be hooked by a filmic spectacle that fuses visceral dread with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the dark entities no longer come externally, but rather inside them. This marks the deepest part of all involved. The result is a relentless moral showdown where the tension becomes a unforgiving face-off between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving wild, five teens find themselves marooned under the ghastly grip and domination of a elusive person. As the protagonists becomes helpless to break her influence, isolated and tormented by beings beyond reason, they are pushed to endure their inner horrors while the time unforgivingly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and teams disintegrate, pressuring each cast member to doubt their self and the notion of personal agency itself. The threat grow with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes otherworldly panic with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke basic terror, an entity older than civilization itself, filtering through our fears, and confronting a force that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that customers from coast to coast can engage with this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Witness this soul-jarring descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to acknowledge these dark realities about existence.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and news via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror tipping point: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, set against Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with last-stand terror drawn from scriptural legend all the way to IP renewals plus acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the richest combined with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, even as streamers flood the fall with debut heat paired with primordial unease. At the same time, the artisan tier is carried on the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal lights the fuse with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig with 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 heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. 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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go 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 pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

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

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

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

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook cycle: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A hectic Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar stacks immediately with a January cluster, thereafter extends through the summer months, and well into the late-year period, blending marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd calendar placement. Studios with streamers are prioritizing tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that elevate these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy move in studio calendars, a category that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the liability when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed buyers that efficiently budgeted genre plays can steer the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings highlighted there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted attention on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can launch on open real estate, supply a clean hook for creative and short-form placements, and outpace with moviegoers that lean in on preview nights and continue through the second weekend if the release pays off. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals belief in that logic. The calendar gets underway with a loaded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a autumn push that flows toward the fright window and into November. The layout also underscores the expanded integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just pushing another sequel. They are shaping as lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that ties a next entry to a initial period. At the very same time, the helmers behind the marquee originals are doubling down on material texture, real effects and specific settings. That blend yields 2026 a robust balance of familiarity and discovery, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two centerpiece releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a memory-charged treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in legacy iconography, character-first teases, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick redirects to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that interlaces affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood 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 allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning method can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Expect a red-band summer horror shock that centers international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand 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 sustains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by minute detail and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that elevates both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival wins, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and making event-like drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is grounded enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not deter a hybrid test from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and widen scale. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which fit with fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. 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 formidable, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver 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.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. 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 evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 abrasive boss fight to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 household haunting premise that frames the panic through a young child’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and celebrity-led eerie 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 satirical comeback that skewers modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 ignites, 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: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family caught in past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and imp source ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.