Age-old Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An spine-tingling mystic horror tale from scriptwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old curse when unrelated individuals become victims in a diabolical ritual. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of living through and primordial malevolence that will transform the fear genre this autumn. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy motion picture follows five people who come to ensnared in a cut-off cottage under the hostile sway of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be shaken by a motion picture journey that unites instinctive fear with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a enduring tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the presences no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most primal shade of the players. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the drama becomes a brutal conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated no-man's-land, five adults find themselves confined under the ghastly force and inhabitation of a unidentified female figure. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to combat her will, marooned and hunted by beings impossible to understand, they are pushed to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the time unforgivingly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension amplifies and alliances disintegrate, demanding each individual to examine their being and the integrity of free will itself. The hazard mount with every fleeting time, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract ancestral fear, an force from ancient eras, operating within emotional fractures, and questioning a presence that challenges autonomy when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that shift is eerie because it is so raw.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for digital release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering households globally can watch this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this cinematic descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these chilling revelations about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. Slate integrates Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, and returning-series thunder

From grit-forward survival fare suffused with scriptural legend to brand-name continuations together with incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated and deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios bookend the months using marquee IP, even as streamers stack the fall with fresh voices in concert with old-world menace. On another front, the independent cohort is buoyed by the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next genre lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek: The new genre slate packs in short order with a January bottleneck, and then carries through summer, and continuing into the holidays, balancing series momentum, original angles, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the steady swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it breaks through and still hedge the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that lean-budget genre plays can dominate social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries showed there is demand for varied styles, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated commitment on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with crowds that respond on previews Thursday and sustain through the second frame if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates assurance in that logic. The slate starts with a crowded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into late October and into post-Halloween. The map also features the greater integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and widen at the precise moment.

An added macro current is franchise tending across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Studios are not just pushing another entry. They are moving to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that announces a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that binds a new installment to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the top original plays are championing practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That interplay hands 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a legacy-leaning framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout built on iconic art, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short reels that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are presented as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror shock that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by immersive craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival deals, slotting horror entries closer to drop and staging as events arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. 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 as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which align with booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid big-brand pushes. 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 stiff, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. 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, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. 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 machine mate turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting tale that plays with the terror of a child’s tricky read. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and A-list fronted paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. my company Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 lower and mid-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 texture, acoustics, 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.

A Promising 2026

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.