Antediluvian Evil Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

An hair-raising occult terror film from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic force when unfamiliar people become tokens in a hellish struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of continuance and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric suspense flick follows five teens who are stirred ensnared in a hidden shack under the ominous command of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a timeless ancient fiend. Be warned to be shaken by a motion picture experience that weaves together instinctive fear with timeless legends, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the spirits no longer originate from beyond, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the most sinister element of the cast. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a constant fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate outland, five campers find themselves marooned under the ghastly control and grasp of a uncanny woman. As the cast becomes powerless to reject her will, marooned and chased by terrors impossible to understand, they are pushed to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the final hour without pause ticks toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and teams implode, coercing each soul to examine their identity and the idea of conscious will itself. The tension amplify with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates paranormal dread with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover instinctual horror, an presence from ancient eras, manifesting in mental cracks, and navigating a force that peels away humanity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that users worldwide can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its initial teaser, which has seen over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Tune in for this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to survive these terrifying truths about the soul.


For exclusive trailers, behind-the-scenes content, and updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season stateside slate melds primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, set against brand-name tremors

Beginning with survival horror inspired by mythic scripture and including IP renewals in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the richest paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios lock in tentpoles with established lines, as platform operators front-load the fall with new perspectives together with legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is drafting behind the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal starts the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

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. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. 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, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming spook lineup: brand plays, original films, in tandem with A hectic Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The emerging terror season loads early with a January wave, subsequently extends through the mid-year, and running into the year-end corridor, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are betting on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has turned into the dependable play in studio calendars, a space that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can own the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The tailwind fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is room for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a programming that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a spread of known properties and new packages, and a recommitted strategy on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a schedule utility on the grid. Horror can arrive on nearly any frame, offer a quick sell for teasers and TikTok spots, and lead with viewers that respond on preview nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the offering delivers. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates confidence in that model. The year commences with a front-loaded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a late-year stretch that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The schedule also reflects the ongoing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and grow at the inflection point.

A companion trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. The players are not just turning out another next film. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a tonal shift or a ensemble decision that binds a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That convergence provides the 2026 slate a confident blend of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a heritage-honoring framework without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will generate mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that becomes a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that melds love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to dominate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, in-camera leaning method can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shock that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around lore, and creature design, elements that can amplify format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that amplifies both premiere heat and trial spikes in the back half. Prime Video balances library titles with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages 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, operates a one-two of precision releases and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to board select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate 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 proposition is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not stop a day-date move from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft features 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 aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which match well with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, this content 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 headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive 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 rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. 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: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that channels the fear through a little one’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that needles current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family lashed to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 left-field winner 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. Expect a healthy 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, and imagery 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 adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.