Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This spine-tingling mystic fright fest from screenwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval terror when drifters become conduits in a dark contest. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of overcoming and archaic horror that will revamp terror storytelling this October. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five young adults who find themselves stuck in a cut-off shack under the ominous will of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a antiquated sacred-era entity. Prepare to be captivated by a theatrical experience that intertwines deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is flipped when the spirits no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the shadowy shade of the victims. The result is a gripping moral showdown where the drama becomes a merciless fight between moral forces.


In a desolate backcountry, five figures find themselves marooned under the malevolent presence and domination of a elusive being. As the youths becomes submissive to fight her grasp, severed and stalked by creatures ungraspable, they are driven to stand before their deepest fears while the seconds without pause draws closer toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and alliances crack, prompting each figure to evaluate their values and the notion of conscious will itself. The threat magnify with every breath, delivering a paranormal ride that marries supernatural terror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into ancestral fear, an entity born of forgotten ages, operating within emotional fractures, and navigating a evil that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something past sanity. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering customers everywhere can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this unforgettable descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these terrifying truths about the soul.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and social posts from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar weaves legend-infused possession, independent shockers, together with series shake-ups

Spanning survival horror infused with mythic scripture to brand-name continuations plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most complex as well as strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios stabilize the year through proven series, in parallel OTT services saturate the fall with new voices plus primordial unease. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner starts the year with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by 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.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: 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 directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fright year to come: Sequels, fresh concepts, And A packed Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The current genre slate stacks right away with a January crush, from there extends through the mid-year, and running into the late-year period, fusing name recognition, new voices, and well-timed counter-scheduling. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that convert these pictures into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has shown itself to be the consistent release in studio lineups, a segment that can accelerate when it clicks and still safeguard the losses when it fails to connect. After 2023 demonstrated to strategy teams that lean-budget shockers can steer the zeitgeist, the following year kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects highlighted there is an opening for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of legacy names and original hooks, and a tightened eye on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now works like a swing piece on the distribution slate. The genre can open on nearly any frame, supply a sharp concept for spots and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that respond on Thursday previews and return through the subsequent weekend if the film satisfies. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan exhibits confidence in that logic. The year kicks off with a loaded January block, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a September to October window that stretches into All Hallows period and into post-Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and classic IP. Studio teams are not just releasing another sequel. They are setting up lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that binds a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are favoring material texture, practical gags and vivid settings. That mix yields 2026 a confident blend of home base and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a memory-charged mode without rehashing the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign rooted in signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reignites 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will go after mass reach through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that shifts into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that fuses affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are marketed as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a raw, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Frame it as a splatter summer horror charge that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that amplifies both debut momentum and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using curated hubs, fright rows, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival pickups, confirming horror entries closer to drop and turning into events launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, 2026 bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind this year’s genre signal a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which match well with expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film check my blog hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 try to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing 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 residential haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a preteen’s uncertain POV. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

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 comic send-up that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, 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 beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.