Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One frightening metaphysical scare-fest from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic entity when newcomers become vehicles in a demonic ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking tale of overcoming and ancient evil that will remodel fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive fearfest follows five young adults who suddenly rise imprisoned in a off-grid house under the oppressive power of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Anticipate to be seized by a visual display that combines visceral dread with biblical origins, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the dark entities no longer come beyond the self, but rather internally. This marks the most sinister version of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing mind game where the emotions becomes a merciless push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a isolated landscape, five individuals find themselves sealed under the evil dominion and grasp of a uncanny spirit. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to break her power, exiled and stalked by beings inconceivable, they are pushed to face their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and relationships dissolve, pushing each protagonist to contemplate their core and the integrity of decision-making itself. The risk escalate with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken pure dread, an spirit from ancient eras, embedding itself in human fragility, and wrestling with a evil that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that turn is haunting because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing watchers no matter where they are can witness this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Tune in for this mind-warping descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these unholy truths about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and alerts directly from production, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. lineup blends myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, alongside franchise surges

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare steeped in scriptural legend and onward to brand-name continuations paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the richest together with blueprinted year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, even as streaming platforms prime the fall with new perspectives alongside old-world menace. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next scare Year Ahead: Sequels, non-franchise titles, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at frights

Dek: The fresh scare year clusters right away with a January logjam, subsequently runs through the mid-year, and well into the late-year period, blending brand equity, original angles, and shrewd counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that convert genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the consistent swing in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it breaks through and still buffer the drawdown when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured decision-makers that lean-budget scare machines can command social chatter, the following year held pace with filmmaker-forward plays and quiet over-performers. The energy pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is capacity for several lanes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that perform internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a balance of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a sharpened strategy on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now works like a utility player on the slate. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, offer a clean hook for marketing and social clips, and outpace with fans that respond on advance nights and stick through the second frame if the feature fires. Following a production delay era, the 2026 pattern indicates faith in that approach. The year launches with a front-loaded January block, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a autumn stretch that pushes into spooky season and afterwards. The calendar also spotlights the tightening integration of indie arms and platforms that can launch in limited release, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The players are not just making another entry. They are setting up story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a title design that conveys a reframed mood or a casting choice that ties a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That blend hands the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning angle without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up 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 dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are set up as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. 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 restarts in what the studio is marketing 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 focus to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan 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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by minute detail and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that amplifies both week-one demand and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed content with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, locking in horror entries toward the drop and making event-like premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to widen. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years announce the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they check my blog alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued emphasis on hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which favor fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. 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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down 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 meaningful, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. 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 machine mate grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 severe boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 in-home haunting chiller that refracts terror through a child’s flickering perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led paranormal 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 comic send-up that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. 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 period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, 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, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.