Age-old Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This chilling unearthly scare-fest from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an timeless nightmare when newcomers become tools in a fiendish ceremony. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of staying alive and prehistoric entity that will alter horror this October. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and immersive cinema piece follows five strangers who arise isolated in a wooded hideaway under the ominous grip of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a filmic ride that blends visceral dread with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is twisted when the beings no longer appear from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the darkest layer of these individuals. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a constant face-off between innocence and sin.


In a barren terrain, five friends find themselves caught under the evil rule and control of a enigmatic female figure. As the group becomes powerless to combat her influence, marooned and stalked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are confronted to reckon with their emotional phantoms while the timeline brutally runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and partnerships shatter, pressuring each character to contemplate their essence and the structure of autonomy itself. The threat escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that intertwines unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to draw upon basic terror, an spirit beyond recorded history, influencing emotional fractures, and challenging a entity that forces self-examination when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing fans internationally can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Witness this unforgettable fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and updates from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts weaves ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Moving from endurance-driven terror steeped in scriptural legend as well as returning series plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most complex and deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses set cornerstones via recognizable brands, even as streaming platforms front-load the fall with new voices paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is catching the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fear calendar year ahead: installments, filmmaker-first projects, together with A loaded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The arriving horror season loads in short order with a January wave, before it carries through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that convert genre releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has solidified as the dependable swing in release strategies, a vertical that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured top brass that efficiently budgeted chillers can command the discourse, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The head of steam flowed into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of familiar brands and original hooks, and a refocused emphasis on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, supply a grabby hook for spots and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that appear on opening previews and keep coming through the next pass if the film satisfies. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that equation. The slate starts with a weighty January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a October build that connects to the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The map also spotlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and expand at the proper time.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just mounting another return. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that signals a tonal shift or a cast configuration that binds a next entry to a early run. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a throwback-friendly treatment without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an digital partner that becomes a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that interlaces longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are positioned as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning method can feel top-tier on a middle budget. Look for a red-band summer horror shock that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in careful craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that expands both premiere heat and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival wins, slotting horror entries tight to release and making event-like debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of precision releases and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is grounded enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued move toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost horror love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 claw to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that manipulates the fright of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime obsessions. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll 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 breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of Source these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, this website 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, audio design, and camera work 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.