Mythic Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, debuting October 2025 across premium platforms

An terrifying mystic suspense film from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primordial evil when outsiders become puppets in a malevolent maze. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of overcoming and forgotten curse that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive suspense flick follows five strangers who find themselves stranded in a remote hideaway under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a central character claimed by a time-worn holy text monster. Be warned to be hooked by a visual experience that integrates instinctive fear with ancient myths, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary theme in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the beings no longer arise outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This portrays the malevolent version of the players. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing fight between moral forces.


In a barren no-man's-land, five characters find themselves stuck under the sinister rule and grasp of a unidentified woman. As the victims becomes unresisting to deny her command, stranded and stalked by evils ungraspable, they are confronted to wrestle with their greatest panics while the hours harrowingly moves toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and associations crack, coercing each figure to challenge their essence and the structure of independent thought itself. The tension climb with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore primitive panic, an threat that existed before mankind, manipulating emotional fractures, and navigating a evil that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that evolution is emotionally raw because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring audiences globally can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to horror fans worldwide.


Mark your calendar for this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For film updates, extra content, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 stateside slate integrates primeval-possession lore, underground frights, and franchise surges

Spanning grit-forward survival fare saturated with biblical myth to franchise returns and incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated together with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios lay down anchors through proven series, in tandem platform operators crowd the fall with new perspectives and primordial unease. On the festival side, the artisan tier is propelled by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No series drag. 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.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: 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. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 oncoming spook cycle: Sequels, original films, together with A busy Calendar geared toward screams

Dek: The brand-new terror slate crowds early with a January cluster, subsequently runs through the mid-year, and well into the late-year period, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has turned into the most reliable release in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for many shades, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across studios, with intentional bunching, a spread of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a recommitted eye on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now serves as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, generate a sharp concept for ad units and vertical videos, and outstrip with fans that come out on opening previews and return through the follow-up frame if the picture delivers. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration reflects confidence in that logic. The year opens with a busy January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a October build that runs into All Hallows period and afterwards. The gridline also illustrates the tightening integration of specialized imprints and OTT outlets that can platform a title, spark evangelism, and move wide at the proper time.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just releasing another continuation. They are trying to present story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a reframed mood or a lead change that bridges a next film to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are championing tactile craft, physical gags and specific settings. That combination offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a fan-service aware angle without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push centered on franchise iconography, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tight, sorrow-tinged, and commercial: a grieving man implements an digital partner that turns into a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that mixes affection and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the debut look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has established that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shock that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can drive PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in careful craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles flow to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that maximizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, fright rows, and collection rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not deter a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. 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 lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which fit with convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star this website forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for 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 the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion mutates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 abrasive boss fight to survive useful reference on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting narrative that toys with the unease of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting great post to read confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: active. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined 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 grain, audio design, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.