Mythic Terror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, streaming Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An chilling spiritual suspense film from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval force when newcomers become conduits in a supernatural maze. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping portrayal of continuance and old world terror that will reimagine genre cinema this October. Produced by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic feature follows five young adults who come to isolated in a cut-off shack under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Be warned to be immersed by a big screen presentation that harmonizes intense horror with legendary tales, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a historical theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the presences no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This echoes the shadowy version of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the conflict becomes a intense confrontation between good and evil.


In a desolate outland, five individuals find themselves stuck under the ghastly control and overtake of a mysterious being. As the cast becomes paralyzed to oppose her curse, severed and tracked by unknowns ungraspable, they are obligated to confront their soulful dreads while the timeline harrowingly edges forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and teams erode, prompting each protagonist to doubt their personhood and the notion of volition itself. The tension mount with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover primal fear, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, filtering through mental cracks, and navigating a curse that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users internationally can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original promo, which has attracted over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this cinematic journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these terrifying truths about existence.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and news via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





Today’s horror decisive shift: the year 2025 stateside slate Mixes primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, and franchise surges

Running from survival horror saturated with scriptural legend and including returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with intentionally scheduled year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously streamers crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is catching the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal Pictures starts the year with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed 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 looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new spook lineup: next chapters, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The upcoming genre slate packs at the outset with a January pile-up, following that extends through June and July, and well into the year-end corridor, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and shareable marketing that position horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the surest play in distribution calendars, a genre that can grow when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that disciplined-budget fright engines can dominate audience talk, the following year continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is a market for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that play globally. The result for 2026 is a calendar that shows rare alignment across the industry, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of brand names and first-time concepts, and a refocused emphasis on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and home streaming.

Executives say the space now serves as a fill-in ace on the programming map. Horror can kick off on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for teasers and short-form placements, and outstrip with crowds that turn out on Thursday nights and continue through the second frame if the entry works. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm underscores comfort in that equation. The year commences with a busy January band, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a September to October window that stretches into spooky season and into November. The calendar also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can build gradually, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are setting up brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a legacy-leaning angle without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by legacy iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to replay odd public stunts and short reels that interlaces romance and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a visceral, in-camera leaning style can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and creature design, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using featured rows, horror hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival wins, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Do not be surprised by 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 as a pair, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a parallel release from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind 2026 horror indicate a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is horror a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 prickly boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that interrogates the terror of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and star-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: active. 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 elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 left-field winner 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, 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, aural design, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.