Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on global platforms

This terrifying mystic shockfest from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an prehistoric force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a diabolical maze. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of resilience and ancient evil that will remodel fear-driven cinema this season. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five lost souls who suddenly rise isolated in a secluded dwelling under the malignant influence of Kyra, a haunted figure overtaken by a legendary holy text monster. Be prepared to be immersed by a filmic spectacle that fuses raw fear with spiritual backstory, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a classic motif in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the fiends no longer arise beyond the self, but rather deep within. This represents the grimmest part of each of them. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the story becomes a brutal face-off between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving wild, five souls find themselves caught under the sinister presence and spiritual invasion of a unknown character. As the protagonists becomes unable to evade her will, severed and hunted by forces indescribable, they are pushed to endure their greatest panics while the seconds relentlessly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and relationships collapse, driving each figure to evaluate their personhood and the structure of freedom of choice itself. The tension escalate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore elemental fright, an darkness born of forgotten ages, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and questioning a force that erodes the self when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something rooted in terror. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that evolution is haunting because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing streamers everywhere can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has pulled in over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these fearful discoveries about free will.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses old-world possession, independent shockers, set against franchise surges

From endurance-driven terror drawn from mythic scripture and extending to series comebacks together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex paired with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors lay down anchors with familiar IP, as digital services stack the fall with new voices set against old-world menace. On another front, the art-house flank is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig anchored by 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. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

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 a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
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 exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming scare season: entries, Originals, together with A jammed Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The new scare cycle packs right away with a January cluster, then runs through the warm months, and far into the holidays, combining brand heft, creative pitches, and well-timed counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-driven marketing that frame these releases into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the surest swing in release plans, a segment that can break out when it breaks through and still buffer the floor when it stumbles. After the 2023 year signaled to studio brass that mid-range fright engines can dominate the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles made clear there is a lane for diverse approaches, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that travel well. The aggregate for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across players, with planned clusters, a blend of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated focus on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can roll out on many corridors, deliver a quick sell for promo reels and shorts, and over-index with moviegoers that show up on preview nights and keep coming through the second frame if the movie lands. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout shows belief in that approach. The year opens with a busy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a autumn push that pushes into late October and into November. The program also highlights the greater integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and widen at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just releasing another sequel. They are moving to present story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that flags a new tone or a casting choice that links a latest entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing practical craft, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two spotlight plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a legacy-leaning angle without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever tops horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an digital partner that evolves into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that fuses love and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward style can feel big on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that enhances both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video combines licensed titles with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival deals, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and turning into events go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of precision releases and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring 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 pitch is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a click to read more fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to move out. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries signal a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which align with expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple horror on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 great post to read flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. 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: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed 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 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: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that plays with the chill of a child’s shaky read. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll 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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family lashed to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and leaner 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. 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.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 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 exploit 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 tempo and variety. January is a sampler, 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 visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, 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 tactility, sound field, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.