Ancient Darkness Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across global platforms

An frightening ghostly nightmare movie from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient force when unfamiliar people become subjects in a demonic experiment. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of overcoming and forgotten curse that will reconstruct horror this spooky time. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie motion picture follows five people who come to trapped in a secluded cabin under the dark grip of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Be prepared to be drawn in by a visual journey that combines bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the forces no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This portrays the most hidden shade of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the story becomes a soul-crushing contest between virtue and vice.


In a barren wild, five figures find themselves contained under the malevolent presence and grasp of a enigmatic character. As the team becomes helpless to oppose her command, disconnected and attacked by terrors unnamable, they are obligated to acknowledge their inner demons while the clock without pause draws closer toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and partnerships crack, coercing each survivor to challenge their personhood and the nature of volition itself. The hazard accelerate with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to channel primal fear, an spirit rooted in antiquity, influencing mental cracks, and dealing with a power that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that evolution is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving viewers around the globe can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this visceral journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to explore these haunting secrets about the mind.


For featurettes, extra content, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Current horror’s Turning Point: 2025 in focus American release plan integrates myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, together with Franchise Rumbles

Spanning survivor-centric dread infused with old testament echoes to brand-name continuations set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated paired with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses hold down the year with known properties, in parallel OTT services prime the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with mythic dread. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is surfing the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated 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 conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror cycle: next chapters, Originals, alongside A Crowded Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The emerging genre calendar builds up front with a January bottleneck, following that unfolds through June and July, and running into the late-year period, blending name recognition, inventive spins, and strategic counterweight. Distributors with platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that convert these films into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the surest tool in studio lineups, a corner that can break out when it clicks and still protect the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that mid-range chillers can drive cultural conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is room for different modes, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with obvious clusters, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. The genre can premiere on nearly any frame, yield a tight logline for previews and short-form placements, and overperform with viewers that arrive on Thursday nights and stick through the next weekend if the film lands. Following a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence underscores faith in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall cadence that reaches into late October and past the holiday. The grid also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. The companies are not just releasing another return. They are seeking to position connection with a occasion, whether that is a title design that signals a reframed mood or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to physical effects work, practical gags and distinct locales. That pairing offers the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit eerie street stunts and brief clips that melds attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are sold as director events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that optimizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival buys, timing horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By share, 2026 bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring relationship and this website legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined 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 moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set 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 backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big 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 brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse 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 pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled 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 prickly boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting premise that channels the fear through a child’s flickering inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, 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 tactility, aural design, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.