Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on top streamers

This blood-curdling spectral fright fest from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic fear when outsiders become pawns in a supernatural contest. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping portrayal of continuance and timeless dread that will reshape scare flicks this Halloween season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic tale follows five unknowns who arise ensnared in a unreachable lodge under the dark influence of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Be prepared to be immersed by a big screen experience that blends raw fear with legendary tales, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the entities no longer come outside their bodies, but rather deep within. This echoes the most terrifying side of the protagonists. The result is a gripping mind game where the narrative becomes a perpetual struggle between innocence and sin.


In a remote wilderness, five friends find themselves confined under the fiendish grip and inhabitation of a shadowy female figure. As the group becomes helpless to resist her command, isolated and preyed upon by terrors impossible to understand, they are required to confront their inner demons while the seconds ruthlessly draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease deepens and relationships crack, prompting each figure to reflect on their self and the idea of free will itself. The consequences grow with every second, delivering a terror ride that weaves together ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover basic terror, an curse from prehistory, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and exposing a entity that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that turn is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring fans from coast to coast can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this life-altering spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus stateside slate fuses old-world possession, underground frights, set against tentpole growls

Spanning grit-forward survival fare drawn from scriptural legend and including legacy revivals set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the richest along with deliberate year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, as platform operators saturate the fall with fresh voices and archetypal fear. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: 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, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative 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. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

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 staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next chiller calendar year ahead: installments, new stories, as well as A loaded Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The new genre year stacks up front with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through the summer months, and carrying into the December corridor, balancing series momentum, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Studios and platforms are prioritizing mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that shape horror entries into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has emerged as the dependable option in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still hedge the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that modestly budgeted entries can steer social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The energy carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for different modes, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that export nicely. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the industry, with clear date clusters, a blend of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened strategy on exclusive windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Executives say the space now behaves like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, furnish a clean hook for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with crowds that respond on previews Thursday and hold through the second weekend if the offering delivers. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a thick January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a September to October window that connects to All Hallows period and into early November. The calendar also spotlights the greater integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and move wide at the inflection point.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across linked properties and storied titles. The players are not just mounting another installment. They are setting up story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a title design that indicates a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that anchors a new installment to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on real-world builds, special makeup and concrete locations. That mix provides 2026 a healthy mix of known notes and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character study. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture announces a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interlaces affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are set up as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, makeup-driven execution can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that boosts both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. 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 hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with crossover potential. 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 fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is recognizable enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not deter a dual release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which favor booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects 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 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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 counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 unyielding boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that filters its scares through a little one’s unsteady perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll 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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 work those windows. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For horror now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.