Ancient Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

One bone-chilling mystic terror film from creator / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric curse when passersby become pawns in a malevolent struggle. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of living through and primeval wickedness that will reimagine genre cinema this autumn. Realized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic film follows five characters who are stirred trapped in a secluded house under the malevolent influence of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a timeless holy text monster. Get ready to be seized by a screen-based ride that intertwines raw fear with ancient myths, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the fiends no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather internally. This marks the haunting side of the protagonists. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the story becomes a ongoing clash between right and wrong.


In a unforgiving woodland, five figures find themselves marooned under the possessive aura and infestation of a shadowy character. As the group becomes submissive to reject her will, disconnected and followed by powers ungraspable, they are required to acknowledge their inner demons while the seconds ruthlessly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and links collapse, requiring each person to reflect on their existence and the idea of independent thought itself. The cost intensify with every minute, delivering a horror experience that intertwines mystical fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon basic terror, an evil that existed before mankind, filtering through our fears, and dealing with a being that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers in all regions can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has collected over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these dark realities about the soul.


For director insights, special features, and promotions from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts Mixes archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, together with IP aftershocks

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with biblical myth as well as IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified as well as blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners bookend the months with known properties, at the same time OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions in concert with archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 fear slate: brand plays, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A packed Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek The current genre cycle clusters immediately with a January logjam, before it rolls through peak season, and pushing into the late-year period, blending IP strength, inventive spins, and strategic counterplay. Studios with streamers are prioritizing responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and buzz-forward plans that pivot these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This category has turned into the sturdy play in studio lineups, a space that can scale when it catches and still protect the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that modestly budgeted shockers can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The run rolled into 2025, where returns and arthouse crossovers made clear there is a lane for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across studios, with defined corridors, a balance of established brands and new packages, and a re-energized priority on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now behaves like a swing piece on the schedule. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, furnish a easy sell for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with demo groups that turn out on Thursday previews and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores conviction in that playbook. The slate launches with a weighty January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a October build that runs into Halloween and into the next week. The program also shows the greater integration of boutique distributors and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, grow buzz, and scale up at the inflection point.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across ongoing universes and legacy IP. The studios are not just releasing another chapter. They are seeking to position continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a star attachment that ties a new installment to a initial period. At the very same time, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, special makeup and distinct locales. That blend affords 2026 a solid mix of home base and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two prominent moves that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a memory-charged mode without repeating the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave stacked with classic imagery, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will go after wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever dominates the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an algorithmic mate that grows into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise creepy live activations and short-cut promos that hybridizes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror hit that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title navigate here before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around lore, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium screens and community activity.

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 carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival snaps, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of targeted theatrical exposure 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 using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch for 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 hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on cultural cachet. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set illuminate the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a day-date try from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate hint at a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for fan conventions and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heavier IP. The month closes 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 serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 abrasive boss fight to survive on a remote island as the control balance swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that mediates the fear via a child’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 parody reboot that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family bound to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. 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 pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled 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 appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, 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 surface detail, sound, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.