Primordial Horror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, streaming Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A unnerving mystic scare-fest from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient force when guests become proxies in a hellish maze. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of living through and prehistoric entity that will transform horror this October. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy motion picture follows five teens who emerge locked in a isolated cottage under the sinister rule of Kyra, a central character consumed by a legendary religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be shaken by a immersive outing that fuses bone-deep fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the dark entities no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather internally. This mirrors the most sinister shade of all involved. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a intense fight between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five youths find themselves isolated under the malevolent influence and spiritual invasion of a haunted spirit. As the protagonists becomes unable to fight her power, cut off and stalked by presences indescribable, they are pushed to face their soulful dreads while the timeline mercilessly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease grows and friendships shatter, forcing each participant to examine their values and the nature of independent thought itself. The risk amplify with every breath, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to extract elemental fright, an curse born of forgotten ages, filtering through inner turmoil, and questioning a spirit that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something darker than pain. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that evolution is haunting because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering users across the world can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Face *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For director insights, set experiences, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate weaves Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, set against brand-name tremors

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in scriptural legend and onward to returning series alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured plus calculated campaign year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. the big studios hold down the year with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms saturate the fall with unboxed visions in concert with legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, independent banners is carried on the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures starts the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

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 looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under 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.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
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.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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 must claw for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming terror slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, And A loaded Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The incoming horror slate builds from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently extends through the mid-year, and running into the year-end corridor, combining IP strength, creative pitches, and smart counterplay. Studios and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that turn the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has grown into the bankable play in programming grids, a genre that can spike when it connects and still hedge the downside when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can shape audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The tailwind rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is a market for varied styles, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a calendar that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of known properties and original hooks, and a renewed attention on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. Horror can debut on most weekends, provide a sharp concept for creative and shorts, and overperform with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and sustain through the second frame if the feature satisfies. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping demonstrates faith in that model. The slate rolls out with a thick January band, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a October build that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and expand at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just making another return. They are looking to package connection with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are prioritizing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a solid mix of trust and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by recognizable motifs, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that blurs romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, makeup-driven method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature work, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that boosts both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival additions, securing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps announce the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 movies search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that pipes the unease through a kid’s wavering personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: finished. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. 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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and picture 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.