Primordial Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, debuting October 2025 across global platforms

A haunting unearthly scare-fest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten evil when unrelated individuals become tools in a hellish game. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of living through and mythic evil that will reconstruct genre cinema this October. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody screenplay follows five unknowns who awaken ensnared in a remote dwelling under the hostile power of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a legendary biblical demon. Be warned to be ensnared by a narrative spectacle that melds primitive horror with ancient myths, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer manifest from external sources, but rather deep within. This echoes the most primal corner of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat moral showdown where the intensity becomes a unforgiving confrontation between moral forces.


In a barren wild, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious influence and domination of a uncanny character. As the victims becomes defenseless to escape her grasp, severed and followed by forces unimaginable, they are confronted to encounter their core terrors while the timeline harrowingly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and ties disintegrate, compelling each cast member to reflect on their core and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The intensity mount with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that weaves together mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dig into raw dread, an curse born of forgotten ages, influencing our fears, and highlighting a darkness that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that conversion is haunting because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households globally can watch this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and insider scoops from the creators, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle stateside slate interlaces Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, together with tentpole growls

From life-or-death fear steeped in ancient scripture as well as IP renewals in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the richest along with tactically planned year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios lay down anchors through proven series, in tandem streamers crowd the fall with emerging auteurs paired with primordial unease. In parallel, the art-house flank is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 Horror season: entries, universe starters, as well as A loaded Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The emerging horror slate builds from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently rolls through midyear, and well into the holidays, weaving legacy muscle, original angles, and smart release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that turn these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has established itself as the steady play in programming grids, a genre that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to leaders that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize the zeitgeist, the following year kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The carry moved into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays highlighted there is an opening for many shades, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with intentional bunching, a mix of established brands and novel angles, and a revived commitment on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium home window and platforms.

Marketers add the space now serves as a wildcard on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on many corridors, yield a clear pitch for creative and vertical videos, and over-index with crowds that line up on previews Thursday and stay strong through the second weekend if the movie works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration indicates faith in that approach. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a fall run that extends to the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The calendar also shows the expanded integration of indie arms and home platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and grow at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just making another entry. They are setting up story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a next film to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical gags and grounded locations. That convergence delivers 2026 a smart balance of known notes and freshness, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a relay and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a legacy-leaning strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue broad awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is elegant, melancholic, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on creepy live activations and short-cut promos that threads romance this website and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are branded news as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 anchoring. The franchise has established that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing as a reset 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 sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror built on textural authenticity and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix library titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival pickups, securing horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind these films signal a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: tone-first game 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 remote island as the pecking order reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 dread, built on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 household haunting narrative that interrogates the fright of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: TBD. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family snared by residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. see here Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 primal menace. Rating: undetermined. 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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and visual design 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 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.