Primordial Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One terrifying metaphysical shockfest from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an mythic curse when passersby become pawns in a hellish conflict. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of endurance and age-old darkness that will reconstruct horror this autumn. Visualized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive screenplay follows five people who wake up caught in a isolated structure under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a timeless sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be enthralled by a cinematic event that combines soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary tradition in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the entities no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most primal corner of every character. The result is a emotionally raw moral showdown where the intensity becomes a unforgiving contest between innocence and sin.


In a isolated landscape, five teens find themselves stuck under the fiendish control and control of a secretive female figure. As the team becomes incapacitated to reject her curse, disconnected and chased by spirits beyond comprehension, they are pushed to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the clock brutally moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and friendships dissolve, pressuring each participant to scrutinize their existence and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The consequences intensify with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that connects occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to evoke deep fear, an presence older than civilization itself, manifesting in our weaknesses, and dealing with a power that challenges autonomy when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is oblivious until the curse activates, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households internationally can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this haunted trip into the unknown. Confront *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these unholy truths about the human condition.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate melds old-world possession, indie terrors, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread grounded in primordial scripture to series comebacks and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned and carefully orchestrated year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios stabilize the year using marquee IP, at the same time SVOD players crowd the fall with unboxed visions alongside primordial unease. In parallel, the art-house flank is riding the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner starts the year with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, 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. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives 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.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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



The new terror cycle: installments, standalone ideas, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The new scare year builds at the outset with a January cluster, then runs through June and July, and deep into the December corridor, marrying brand heft, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has become the steady lever in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it lands and still hedge the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that efficiently budgeted chillers can command the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The head of steam moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is capacity for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the market, with defined corridors, a blend of known properties and untested plays, and a sharpened stance on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can roll out on open real estate, create a tight logline for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that show up on Thursday previews and sustain through the second weekend if the title works. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that model. The calendar gets underway with a thick January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another entry. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are favoring on-set craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That pairing offers 2026 a confident blend of known notes and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking framework without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that fuses romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names 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 name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror shock that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can boost imp source PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival grabs, timing horror entries closer to drop and eventizing drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By weight, 2026 leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a parallel release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for 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 tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down 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 menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit 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 moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner mutates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that refracts terror through a minor’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

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: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. 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.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 shock over-performer 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 weblink and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, 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 Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.