Age-old Evil Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This frightening metaphysical shockfest from writer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried nightmare when unfamiliar people become subjects in a hellish ordeal. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing account of survival and mythic evil that will resculpt the horror genre this harvest season. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric thriller follows five characters who find themselves trapped in a secluded shelter under the malevolent will of Kyra, a troubled woman possessed by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be gripped by a immersive event that blends instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a long-standing concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is radically shifted when the demons no longer come beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most sinister dimension of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the events becomes a perpetual push-pull between right and wrong.


In a remote wild, five campers find themselves stuck under the evil dominion and curse of a haunted entity. As the group becomes submissive to withstand her will, exiled and stalked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are compelled to confront their emotional phantoms while the hours harrowingly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and alliances disintegrate, pressuring each individual to examine their existence and the principle of free will itself. The consequences rise with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken deep fear, an curse beyond recorded history, working through emotional vulnerability, and challenging a darkness that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that turn is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure streamers in all regions can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Witness this visceral ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For exclusive trailers, making-of footage, and insider scoops via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season U.S. calendar Mixes old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, and returning-series thunder

Spanning last-stand terror grounded in mythic scripture through to franchise returns set beside focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned plus tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios lay down anchors through proven series, in parallel streaming platforms front-load the fall with fresh voices plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is surfing the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner sets the tone with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, 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 movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky 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 should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 terror slate: continuations, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek: The new horror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, thereafter spreads through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that elevate genre releases into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the most reliable counterweight in release strategies, a space that can break out when it hits and still limit the losses when it doesn’t. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget chillers can command the zeitgeist, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing extended into 2025, where re-entries and premium-leaning entries underscored there is an opening for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to fresh IP that carry overseas. The combined impact for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with strategic blocks, a balance of known properties and original hooks, and a reinvigorated eye on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium home window and platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can kick off on nearly any frame, yield a easy sell for marketing and social clips, and outperform with viewers that turn out on opening previews and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the release fires. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm reflects faith in that dynamic. The year kicks off with a busy January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and beyond. The schedule also shows the deeper integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just releasing another next film. They are seeking to position connection with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a refreshed voice or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing practical craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That mix produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal Source posture signals a fan-service aware mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in brand visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a raw, in-camera leaning strategy can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror surge that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that optimizes both launch urgency and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video blends licensed films with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using timely promos, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival buys, confirming horror entries near their drops and staging as events drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Anticipate 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 jointly, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is steady enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre point to a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led 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 scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the hierarchy inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that interrogates the dread of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. 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-accurate language and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and framing 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.