Antediluvian Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 on top streamers

One eerie spectral terror film from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient evil when unknowns become tokens in a dark ceremony. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of struggle and old world terror that will reimagine terror storytelling this ghoul season. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric cinema piece follows five strangers who suddenly rise stuck in a wilderness-bound lodge under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a female presence dominated by a prehistoric biblical force. Ready yourself to be drawn in by a filmic adventure that harmonizes primitive horror with mystical narratives, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is radically shifted when the beings no longer come beyond the self, but rather inside them. This portrays the most sinister element of the players. The result is a emotionally raw identity crisis where the drama becomes a relentless battle between moral forces.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five young people find themselves stuck under the unholy sway and overtake of a unidentified spirit. As the characters becomes submissive to withstand her curse, marooned and followed by unknowns impossible to understand, they are pushed to battle their greatest panics while the final hour coldly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections disintegrate, requiring each individual to reflect on their self and the idea of conscious will itself. The danger grow with every minute, delivering a chilling narrative that merges unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to extract core terror, an force that predates humanity, operating within inner turmoil, and testing a presence that redefines identity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that shift is shocking because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing customers from coast to coast can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Witness this haunted trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For featurettes, extra content, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate Mixes old-world possession, festival-born jolts, plus Franchise Rumbles

Spanning last-stand terror grounded in near-Eastern lore to installment follow-ups paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the richest and deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, in tandem subscription platforms saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is catching the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: 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 will tussle for space. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: next chapters, standalone ideas, plus A packed Calendar geared toward chills

Dek: The upcoming terror cycle loads up front with a January wave, subsequently flows through summer, and well into the holidays, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that elevate these films into water-cooler talk.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This category has become the most reliable lever in distribution calendars, a lane that can lift when it resonates and still limit the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to strategy teams that modestly budgeted pictures can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing pushed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a run that is strikingly coherent across companies, with intentional bunching, a harmony of brand names and novel angles, and a tightened priority on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Marketers add the category now slots in as a swing piece on the release plan. Horror can debut on numerous frames, generate a tight logline for spots and social clips, and exceed norms with patrons that turn out on preview nights and hold through the second weekend if the entry connects. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup underscores trust in that approach. The slate starts with a stacked January run, then primes spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a September to October window that runs into Halloween and into November. The layout also features the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can platform a title, generate chatter, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another installment. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title design that indicates a refreshed voice or a talent selection that binds a latest entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing real-world builds, physical gags and grounded locations. That mix yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a roots-evoking mode without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts Young & Cursed to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that becomes a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to replay creepy live activations and quick hits that interweaves affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are sold as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to maximize 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a gritty, hands-on effects mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can lift format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror built on historical precision and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that expands both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video balances licensed content with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, securing horror entries tight to release and eventizing debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined 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 suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 jointly, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By count, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is steady enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a dual release from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and stretch navigate to this website the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which Source proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring stage summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric 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 cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and accumulating 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 household haunting narrative that explores the dread of a child’s wobbly impressions. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-built and celebrity-led eerie 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 skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.