Ancient Evil Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

One terrifying paranormal horror tale from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an prehistoric nightmare when foreigners become pawns in a satanic ritual. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of struggle and age-old darkness that will reshape the fear genre this season. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody fearfest follows five characters who wake up locked in a remote lodge under the malignant power of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a biblical-era holy text monster. Steel yourself to be immersed by a theatrical spectacle that blends bone-deep fear with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is subverted when the demons no longer develop from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the most hidden part of the players. The result is a relentless mental war where the plotline becomes a merciless push-pull between moral forces.


In a remote forest, five young people find themselves sealed under the fiendish influence and control of a haunted female figure. As the team becomes paralyzed to break her manipulation, cut off and targeted by evils inconceivable, they are cornered to face their emotional phantoms while the hours relentlessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and ties collapse, pushing each participant to challenge their being and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The stakes surge with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that fuses unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon core terror, an curse before modern man, working through inner turmoil, and testing a force that questions who we are when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure households anywhere can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this gripping descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these dark realities about the soul.


For cast commentary, behind-the-scenes content, and news directly from production, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit the movie portal.





Horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season U.S. calendar braids together biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, alongside legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with life-or-death fear steeped in primordial scripture to brand-name continuations in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured along with strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, at the same time subscription platforms saturate the fall with discovery plays and primordial unease. In parallel, the art-house flank is buoyed by the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

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

Universal begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

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 looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to 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 ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the 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. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 oncoming Horror Year Ahead: Sequels, non-franchise titles, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek The emerging terror cycle builds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then flows through peak season, and continuing into the holiday frame, combining brand heft, original angles, and tactical counterplay. The major players are committing to efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that pivot these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable move in release plans, a segment that can expand when it connects and still limit the risk when it doesn’t. After 2023 re-taught executives that lean-budget shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers signaled there is a market for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to original one-offs that perform internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with purposeful groupings, a mix of legacy names and new pitches, and a revived priority on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and subscription services.

Executives say the space now functions as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can debut on most weekends, furnish a grabby hook for spots and social clips, and punch above weight with crowds that arrive on opening previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the offering satisfies. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 mapping telegraphs conviction in that equation. The year opens with a busy January run, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a late-year stretch that carries into Halloween and into the next week. The program also shows the increasing integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and expand at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that reconnects a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are returning to real-world builds, real effects and specific settings. That interplay produces 2026 a smart balance of trust and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a nostalgia-forward framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with iconic art, character-first teases, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture this content late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects style can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on careful craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival wins, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. 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 cult classic, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps outline the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a parallel release from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and scale the storytelling. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate point to a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which align with con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month buttons 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 spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s 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 rolls 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 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 tough boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that channels the fear through a minor’s flickering personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

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 send-up revival that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household entangled with older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, 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 strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.