Primordial Evil Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across global platforms

One spine-tingling occult terror film from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an ancient evil when unknowns become tokens in a fiendish ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of endurance and old world terror that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this October. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy thriller follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves sealed in a remote dwelling under the dark command of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a timeless biblical demon. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a visual presentation that integrates visceral dread with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a recurring motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the entities no longer form outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This marks the haunting shade of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a relentless face-off between good and evil.


In a desolate forest, five figures find themselves isolated under the malevolent rule and domination of a obscure female figure. As the victims becomes unresisting to reject her influence, abandoned and stalked by powers ungraspable, they are forced to endure their soulful dreads while the doomsday meter unforgivingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and alliances erode, requiring each survivor to reconsider their values and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The consequences magnify with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into basic terror, an presence born of forgotten ages, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and examining a being that erodes the self when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is unaware until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so deep.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences no matter where they are can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Experience this mind-warping journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these unholy truths about human nature.


For director insights, production insights, and announcements directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle stateside slate blends Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Spanning grit-forward survival fare inspired by scriptural legend and stretching into brand-name continuations alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned and deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios bookend the months with known properties, as subscription platforms pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with mythic dread. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate lights the fuse with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Guided by 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. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, 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. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new genre lineup: entries, new stories, together with A jammed Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The emerging terror calendar packs from day one with a January cluster, after that rolls through summer, and deep into the holiday frame, combining franchise firepower, untold stories, and smart counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are relying on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has turned into the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reassured top brass that cost-conscious fright engines can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for varied styles, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, generate a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and over-index with patrons that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates comfort in that dynamic. The year starts with a weighty January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a September to October window that flows toward spooky season and afterwards. The gridline also includes the deeper integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and classic IP. The players are not just rolling another continuation. They are seeking to position connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that announces a refreshed voice or a casting choice that threads a next entry to a heyday. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That blend delivers 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a handoff and a rootsy character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a roots-evoking angle without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Expect a marketing push rooted in legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on odd public stunts and short-form creative that melds attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are presented as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy style can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can drive large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and historical speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that boosts both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves acquired titles with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival deals, locking in horror entries closer to launch and framing as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe imp source Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is leading with character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is known enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a day-date try from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which align with booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 difficult boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 household haunting piece that teases the panic of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-grade and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated 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 detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family entangled with old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and visuals 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.