Age-old Terror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

An eerie occult fright fest from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an forgotten fear when unknowns become tokens in a fiendish conflict. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of overcoming and ancient evil that will revolutionize horror this ghoul season. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy thriller follows five people who wake up trapped in a isolated hideaway under the hostile control of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be gripped by a visual adventure that melds bone-deep fear with legendary tales, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary tradition in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the beings no longer come from beyond, but rather internally. This mirrors the most sinister part of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling emotional conflict where the story becomes a unforgiving fight between purity and corruption.


In a barren backcountry, five characters find themselves stuck under the dark force and possession of a enigmatic spirit. As the cast becomes powerless to escape her will, detached and chased by entities mind-shattering, they are forced to reckon with their greatest panics while the deathwatch mercilessly moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and associations implode, coercing each person to doubt their self and the idea of free will itself. The consequences rise with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that connects mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into elemental fright, an entity beyond time, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and exposing a being that dismantles free will when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that change is shocking because it is so intimate.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering households no matter where they are can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Join this cinematic exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these chilling revelations about inner darkness.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and updates from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule blends old-world possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside franchise surges

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare steeped in primordial scripture through to canon extensions and surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex together with strategic year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Major studios bookend the months by way of signature titles, concurrently digital services prime the fall with new voices set against legend-coded dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is catching the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, and 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner starts the year with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, the Warner lot sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. 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. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 oncoming Horror year to come: installments, non-franchise titles, paired with A Crowded Calendar designed for shocks

Dek The brand-new scare calendar clusters from day one with a January cluster, thereafter runs through June and July, and far into the holidays, combining legacy muscle, original angles, and data-minded counterweight. Distributors with platforms are focusing on smart costs, cinema-first plans, and viral-minded pushes that convert genre releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has grown into the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a genre that can accelerate when it hits and still cushion the risk when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for leaders that lean-budget fright engines can command the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The carry carried into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays highlighted there is a lane for multiple flavors, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across distributors, with obvious clusters, a harmony of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the category now works like a schedule utility on the grid. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, yield a simple premise for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that respond on Thursday nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the movie fires. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup shows belief in that playbook. The slate launches with a weighty January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a September to October window that connects to spooky season and into post-Halloween. The calendar also features the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the proper time.

Another broad trend is series management across linked properties and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just pushing another chapter. They are seeking to position continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a new tone or a casting choice that ties a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring physical effects work, practical effects and distinct locales. That alloy produces 2026 a confident blend of recognition and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character study. Production is active in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a roots-evoking framework without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, somber, and commercial: a grieving man sets up an machine companion that escalates into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back eerie street stunts and quick hits that mixes longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to fill 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, on-set effects led method can feel top-tier on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around canon, and monster craft, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in careful craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that fortifies both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using editorial spots, fright rows, and featured rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of precision releases and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize 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 launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is known enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a dual release from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and widen scale. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind this slate indicate a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony check over here 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 formidable, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a kid’s flickering inner lens. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: get redirected here forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 period-precise speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search 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 unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled 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 endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.