Antediluvian Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

A terrifying metaphysical suspense story from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic dread when unknowns become instruments in a hellish ritual. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of continuance and prehistoric entity that will revamp terror storytelling this season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric story follows five figures who suddenly rise stuck in a unreachable hideaway under the malevolent sway of Kyra, a cursed figure occupied by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Get ready to be seized by a filmic spectacle that integrates intense horror with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a classic fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is flipped when the malevolences no longer descend from an outside force, but rather internally. This illustrates the most sinister layer of every character. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the narrative becomes a unyielding face-off between virtue and vice.


In a barren landscape, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the unholy grip and possession of a uncanny spirit. As the youths becomes unresisting to break her control, left alone and attacked by creatures unfathomable, they are thrust to face their core terrors while the time ruthlessly strikes toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension grows and friendships splinter, prompting each member to question their identity and the idea of free will itself. The tension intensify with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that weaves together supernatural terror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into ancestral fear, an darkness from prehistory, filtering through fragile psyche, and dealing with a curse that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is deeply unsettling because it is so private.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers across the world can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has garnered over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling path of possession. Face *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these ghostly lessons about existence.


For cast commentary, special features, and news from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate blends archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Spanning survival horror infused with legendary theology all the way to IP renewals set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned along with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, as streamers stack the fall with emerging auteurs and scriptural shivers. On the festival side, independent banners is carried on the carry from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

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

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 an astute call. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The next fright Year Ahead: entries, Originals, alongside A busy Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek: The upcoming terror season crams from day one with a January pile-up, and then unfolds through the mid-year, and deep into the winter holidays, fusing series momentum, inventive spins, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and platforms are doubling down on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that turn these films into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has turned into the surest release in distribution calendars, a genre that can accelerate when it clicks and still cushion the drag when it stumbles. After 2023 re-taught greenlighters that disciplined-budget fright engines can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The trend extended into 2025, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is a lane for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that play globally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across players, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of known properties and first-time concepts, and a recommitted eye on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and home platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now works like a plug-and-play option on the programming map. Horror can roll out on virtually any date, supply a clean hook for teasers and shorts, and outpace with moviegoers that respond on Thursday nights and return through the second weekend if the film works. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that equation. The year rolls out with a loaded January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that extends to Halloween and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the ongoing integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and move wide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is brand strategy across linked properties and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present connection with a premium feel, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that ties a latest entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to real-world builds, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics click to read more character piece. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a roots-evoking campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off 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 selling point the news campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is straightforward, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that turns into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit eerie street stunts and bite-size content that mixes devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, practical-first execution can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror rush that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in careful craft and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival buys, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, 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 nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Anticipate 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 as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the assembly is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent-year comps make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind these films point to a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which fit with booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner unfolds 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating 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 story that twists the chill of a child’s inconsistent perceptions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. 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 reuniting creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive this website window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 dark-horse hunt 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, acoustics, and cinematography 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.