Ancient Malevolence returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

An bone-chilling ghostly terror film from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old dread when unrelated individuals become subjects in a supernatural trial. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of overcoming and ancient evil that will reimagine the fear genre this season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy fearfest follows five strangers who regain consciousness sealed in a hidden cottage under the hostile dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a legendary biblical force. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a visual display that combines instinctive fear with ancient myths, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a iconic fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is challenged when the dark entities no longer originate outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This embodies the most hidden dimension of the group. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a relentless confrontation between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five young people find themselves marooned under the dark presence and possession of a haunted being. As the ensemble becomes powerless to withstand her curse, severed and attacked by evils ungraspable, they are compelled to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the moments without pity strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and relationships implode, driving each survivor to examine their essence and the principle of conscious will itself. The hazard surge with every instant, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover basic terror, an evil that existed before mankind, working through human fragility, and examining a being that strips down our being when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is haunting because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that viewers internationally can watch this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to viewers around the world.


Witness this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans stateside slate melds Mythic Possession, indie terrors, set against legacy-brand quakes

Across survivor-centric dread rooted in mythic scripture all the way to brand-name continuations alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex paired with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners are anchoring the year via recognizable brands, concurrently OTT services flood the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is riding the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving 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 adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with 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, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays 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: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season Ahead: 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 wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next Horror calendar year ahead: entries, Originals, And A busy Calendar optimized for goosebumps

Dek The brand-new scare calendar clusters from day one with a January pile-up, before it rolls through the warm months, and running into the December corridor, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and strategic counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are committing to tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has emerged as the most reliable option in annual schedules, a vertical that can expand when it catches and still safeguard the downside when it falls short. After 2023 reassured decision-makers that cost-conscious entries can lead the discourse, the following year maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The trend rolled into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films confirmed there is appetite for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that travel well. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that appears tightly organized across players, with planned clusters, a mix of established brands and new pitches, and a recommitted priority on cinema windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and platforms.

Marketers add the space now behaves like a swing piece on the slate. The genre can launch on many corridors, deliver a quick sell for marketing and vertical videos, and exceed norms with crowds that arrive on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the film fires. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects faith in that engine. The slate starts with a thick January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a fall corridor that carries into late October and into the next week. The layout also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. The players are not just releasing another entry. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a reframed mood or a cast configuration that bridges a latest entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are celebrating on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That interplay yields 2026 a lively combination of recognition and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

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 director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a heritage-honoring angle without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected rooted in franchise iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will chase wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that mutates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that melds romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are framed as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has established that a raw, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Expect a grime-caked summer horror shot that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ordering that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and collection rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival deals, dating horror entries toward the drop and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, 2026 tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, Get More Info unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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, provides the means for marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which match well with con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

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

Winter into spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 severe boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the control balance upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 premise that frames the panic through a child’s uneven point of view. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family caught in returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and visual design 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.