Antediluvian Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled shocker, streaming October 2025 on top streamers

This haunting spectral suspense film from author / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval evil when outsiders become tokens in a fiendish maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of struggle and old world terror that will redefine horror this harvest season. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and claustrophobic motion picture follows five teens who regain consciousness isolated in a unreachable cabin under the menacing control of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be immersed by a big screen journey that blends primitive horror with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a iconic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the beings no longer appear outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This marks the most primal version of the group. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the emotions becomes a perpetual struggle between purity and corruption.


In a haunting natural abyss, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the malicious dominion and spiritual invasion of a mysterious character. As the cast becomes incapable to oppose her curse, stranded and hunted by spirits unfathomable, they are made to battle their deepest fears while the doomsday meter coldly moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and associations dissolve, urging each member to evaluate their existence and the integrity of personal agency itself. The hazard climb with every minute, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel basic terror, an power older than civilization itself, operating within inner turmoil, and challenging a being that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers no matter where they are can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this visceral exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to dive into these chilling revelations about existence.


For featurettes, extra content, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 American release plan fuses Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from life-or-death fear saturated with near-Eastern lore through to IP renewals set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned combined with precision-timed year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors set cornerstones by way of signature titles, in parallel subscription platforms saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs together with mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is fueled by the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. 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.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, and also A loaded Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek: The current genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, thereafter stretches through peak season, and carrying into the festive period, fusing name recognition, untold stories, and smart offsets. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that transform these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the surest move in release strategies, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it misses. After 2023 reassured top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The energy rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and elevated films made clear there is capacity for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across players, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, furnish a clear pitch for previews and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on advance nights and return through the sophomore frame if the release connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping underscores faith in that dynamic. The year launches with a busy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The grid also illustrates the tightening integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and grow at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just releasing another next film. They are setting up lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a refreshed voice or a lead change that links a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a healthy mix of comfort and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout centered on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will generate wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever dominates the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to echo eerie street stunts and bite-size content that blurs romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an useful reference untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has long shown that a raw, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a middle budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror blast that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that enhances both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with cross-border navigate here buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival additions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow scope. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie 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 collide with a warped 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 severe boss battle to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia creeps in. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a youngster’s wavering personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 needles present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, news ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 breakout hunt 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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.

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and image-making 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.