Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

One spine-tingling spectral thriller from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primordial fear when foreigners become instruments in a malevolent struggle. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of perseverance and archaic horror that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this fall. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric thriller follows five strangers who suddenly rise locked in a far-off shack under the dark influence of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a immersive event that weaves together soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reimagined when the entities no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most primal side of the cast. The result is a intense psychological battle where the suspense becomes a ongoing push-pull between heaven and hell.


In a isolated natural abyss, five young people find themselves sealed under the dark presence and curse of a enigmatic figure. As the victims becomes powerless to break her grasp, abandoned and stalked by creatures ungraspable, they are forced to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch without pause winds toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion escalates and connections break, forcing each character to rethink their core and the notion of liberty itself. The danger surge with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into instinctual horror, an entity born of forgotten ages, influencing soul-level flaws, and testing a presence that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that conversion is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering audiences no matter where they are can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to a global viewership.


Experience this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and press updates directly from production, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, alongside brand-name tremors

Spanning survivor-centric dread suffused with ancient scripture to returning series and focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the richest plus blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios bookend the months with known properties, even as OTT services load up the fall with fresh voices plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is riding the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal opens the year with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

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

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The new horror season loads immediately with a January crush, then runs through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, fusing IP strength, inventive spins, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that shape genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has emerged as the steady lever in release plans, a segment that can break out when it connects and still insulate the downside when it misses. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that lean-budget fright engines can command the discourse, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The carry carried into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is a market for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original features that export nicely. The net effect for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and new packages, and a renewed emphasis on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the space now acts as a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can arrive on nearly any frame, yield a clean hook for teasers and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with crowds that lean in on first-look nights and continue through the second weekend if the feature hits. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 rhythm shows conviction in that approach. The year commences with a crowded January window, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The map also reflects the continuing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and widen at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. Big banners are not just rolling another next film. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that bridges a next film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on tactile craft, real effects and grounded locations. That combination offers 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a baton pass and a rootsy character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a legacy-leaning approach without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push leaning on iconic art, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is efficient, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an digital partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise eerie street stunts and bite-size content that blurs attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development 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 makes room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele titles are treated as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first aesthetic can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August useful reference 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical rollout for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not obstruct a dual release from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance 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 creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 abrasive boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that frames the panic through a youngster’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-grade and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family bound to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by navigate to this website PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The dark-horse hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.