Primeval Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

This terrifying metaphysical fright fest from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old dread when strangers become puppets in a fiendish game. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful episode of struggle and prehistoric entity that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this scare season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody feature follows five people who emerge caught in a off-grid shelter under the menacing will of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a millennia-old biblical force. Be warned to be shaken by a big screen display that merges deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the fiends no longer develop from external sources, but rather inside them. This symbolizes the darkest aspect of the group. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a constant push-pull between heaven and hell.


In a barren wild, five campers find themselves sealed under the malevolent influence and spiritual invasion of a obscure female figure. As the youths becomes paralyzed to oppose her command, severed and pursued by presences beyond comprehension, they are made to reckon with their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds coldly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and alliances crack, urging each soul to doubt their existence and the philosophy of independent thought itself. The hazard climb with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that merges spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into raw dread, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, feeding on soul-level flaws, and examining a force that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences in all regions can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this haunted voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these dark realities about free will.


For teasers, making-of footage, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. Slate integrates Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, plus legacy-brand quakes

Running from life-or-death fear rooted in scriptural legend and onward to IP renewals together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered together with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors stabilize the year by way of signature titles, in tandem platform operators prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with legend-coded dread. On the festival side, the artisan tier is surfing the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal lights the fuse with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed 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 darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

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

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

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. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. 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 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming fright slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The emerging terror season packs early with a January wave, thereafter rolls through the summer months, and carrying into the winter holidays, mixing series momentum, novel approaches, and smart counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that turn genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has become the dependable play in annual schedules, a corner that can surge when it performs and still mitigate the drag when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that cost-conscious fright engines can command pop culture, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The run translated to 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries underscored there is room for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a refocused commitment on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and SVOD.

Marketers add the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a easy sell for teasers and social clips, and over-index with ticket buyers that line up on preview nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the film pays off. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that approach. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall corridor that extends to the fright window and beyond. The grid also features the increasing integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The companies are not just producing another entry. They are moving to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that signals a tonal shift or a casting move that reconnects a latest entry to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, in-camera effects and specific settings. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two spotlight releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a roots-evoking approach without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that turns into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay strange in-person beats and micro spots that interweaves devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to maximize 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around canon, and creature builds, elements that can drive format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by minute detail and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that boosts both FOMO and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions navigate here with world buys and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical rollout for the title, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps frame the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that maintained windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror indicate a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks 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 grieving man’s virtual companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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 meet a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss push to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power shifts and suspicion grows. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting tale that twists the fright of a child’s fragile interpretations. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. 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 period language and primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.