Age-old Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

This frightening unearthly nightmare movie from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an prehistoric entity when foreigners become tools in a fiendish ritual. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching portrayal of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will transform terror storytelling this October. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive story follows five strangers who wake up confined in a remote cabin under the ominous command of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Prepare to be shaken by a cinematic event that blends visceral dread with ancient myths, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the malevolences no longer develop from an outside force, but rather internally. This illustrates the shadowy part of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing struggle between purity and corruption.


In a bleak terrain, five youths find themselves sealed under the dark dominion and infestation of a mysterious person. As the team becomes unable to evade her power, isolated and stalked by creatures beyond comprehension, they are driven to stand before their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and relationships fracture, demanding each participant to evaluate their values and the foundation of conscious will itself. The stakes mount with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel core terror, an power that predates humanity, emerging via inner turmoil, and exposing a power that erodes the self when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers anywhere can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has pulled in over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this life-altering descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For featurettes, extra content, and promotions from the creators, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season U.S. calendar blends Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, paired with returning-series thunder

Spanning life-or-death fear rooted in legendary theology all the way to series comebacks set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most complex in tandem with strategic year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios set cornerstones by way of signature titles, in tandem SVOD players flood the fall with unboxed visions as well as legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is riding the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the memorable motifs return: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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 platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

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 posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. 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. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 scrap for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming terror release year: Sequels, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The incoming terror season clusters in short order with a January traffic jam, thereafter stretches through June and July, and running into the holiday stretch, blending brand equity, novel approaches, and calculated calendar placement. Studios and platforms are committing to lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has shown itself to be the sturdy tool in distribution calendars, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still protect the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that cost-conscious scare machines can shape cultural conversation, 2024 continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The carry translated to 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to original features that translate worldwide. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that shows rare alignment across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of established brands and new packages, and a re-energized commitment on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium home window and subscription services.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a versatile piece on the programming map. The genre can roll out on numerous frames, supply a grabby hook for trailers and vertical videos, and overperform with patrons that show up on previews Thursday and continue through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Following a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits certainty in that dynamic. The year kicks off with a crowded January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a September to October window that flows toward the fright window and past Halloween. The layout also underscores the stronger partnership of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, grow buzz, and widen at the proper time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across connected story worlds and veteran brands. The players are not just turning out another chapter. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a initial period. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating hands-on technique, on-set effects and vivid settings. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and discovery, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring mode without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push centered on legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, grief-rooted, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to take 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, collaborates 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 long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Expect a grime-caked summer horror surge that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a new foundation 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 mission to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed content with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count 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 selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years announce the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 moody palate cleanser 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 Get More Info formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win 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.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s digital partner becomes something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first 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 severe boss push to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that interrogates the horror of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set 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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in ancient dread. Rating: TBD. 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: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. 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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview 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, sound, 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.