Mythic Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

An bone-chilling mystic thriller from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an ancient horror when unknowns become instruments in a cursed struggle. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of resilience and mythic evil that will reshape the fear genre this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive cinema piece follows five strangers who find themselves stuck in a far-off hideaway under the hostile power of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be gripped by a audio-visual spectacle that melds deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay foundation in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the dark entities no longer emerge externally, but rather from within. This portrays the malevolent shade of each of them. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a unyielding contest between light and darkness.


In a barren no-man's-land, five young people find themselves confined under the ghastly dominion and haunting of a haunted female figure. As the survivors becomes defenseless to break her influence, stranded and tracked by beings inconceivable, they are thrust to reckon with their greatest panics while the time without pause ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension grows and partnerships implode, pressuring each protagonist to question their existence and the concept of autonomy itself. The stakes grow with every minute, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into primal fear, an threat born of forgotten ages, emerging via inner turmoil, and examining a curse that forces self-examination when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers from coast to coast can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these terrifying truths about human nature.


For director insights, special features, and news from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit the official website.





Current horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate interlaces archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, alongside tentpole growls

From last-stand terror grounded in biblical myth and extending to canon extensions in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most complex paired with precision-timed year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors plant stakes across the year through proven series, even as streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays set against primordial unease. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is catching the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer tapers, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine 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 returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming terror slate: follow-ups, original films, together with A packed Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The arriving horror calendar clusters right away with a January pile-up, after that runs through the summer months, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. The major players are focusing on efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a segment that can lift when it hits and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that efficiently budgeted chillers can command pop culture, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The tailwind carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films proved there is an opening for different modes, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that perform internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, create a easy sell for teasers and social clips, and punch above weight with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the film satisfies. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals comfort in that playbook. The year commences with a crowded January run, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and into November. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another continuation. They are shaping as lineage with a occasion, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a reframed mood or a lead change that reconnects a next film to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the filmmakers behind the top original plays are celebrating practical craft, in-camera effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run driven by heritage visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to echo uncanny live moments and quick hits that melds companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a hard-R summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, fright rows, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to broaden. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years announce the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated Source campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 fight to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that manipulates the fear of a child’s uncertain point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led supernatural mood piece.

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 of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios click to read more 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room 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 line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 lean-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 quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 shadowed, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and image-making 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.