Age-old Horror reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across major platforms

One frightening occult shockfest from literary architect / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primordial malevolence when unknowns become conduits in a cursed conflict. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of living through and archaic horror that will alter terror storytelling this Halloween season. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic cinema piece follows five teens who awaken stranded in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a big screen ride that unites bodily fright with folklore, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the demons no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather inside them. This mirrors the most sinister corner of the victims. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a unyielding push-pull between moral forces.


In a bleak woodland, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the evil grip and grasp of a haunted woman. As the cast becomes defenseless to escape her rule, exiled and preyed upon by presences ungraspable, they are cornered to deal with their core terrors while the doomsday meter brutally pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and friendships fracture, pushing each participant to doubt their true nature and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The cost surge with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke deep fear, an presence older than civilization itself, operating within our fears, and questioning a force that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra needed manifesting something unfamiliar to reason. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering viewers around the globe can engage with this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar fuses legend-infused possession, independent shockers, and Franchise Rumbles

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by legendary theology and onward to IP renewals paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with unboxed visions alongside archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is fueled by the kinetic energy of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. 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.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes 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, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle 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 grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 Horror season: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar Built For chills

Dek The upcoming genre calendar loads from day one with a January cluster, from there unfolds through the warm months, and carrying into the festive period, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that frame these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in studio slates, a genre that can surge when it catches and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget fright engines can dominate audience talk, the following year carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where reboots and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the market, with planned clusters, a spread of brand names and new pitches, and a renewed focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now functions as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. Horror can open on virtually any date, offer a tight logline for promo reels and short-form placements, and over-index with fans that lean in on opening previews and return through the sophomore frame if the movie fires. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence demonstrates certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a loaded January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The program also includes the tightening integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just making another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a initial period. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay hands the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and freshness, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a legacy-leaning framework without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence landing toward 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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that shifts into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that melds companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s releases are presented as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, makeup-driven strategy can feel prestige on a tight budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror surge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart 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 fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around lore, and monster design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

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 maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that amplifies both debut momentum and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries closer to drop and making event-like debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a standard theatrical run for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to open out. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited runs to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a parallel release from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued lean toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which align with fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming get redirected here in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon 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 difficult boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising 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 refracts terror through a preteen’s uncertain perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that satirizes current genre trends 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: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. 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-specific language and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.