Primordial Evil rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

A blood-curdling otherworldly terror film from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric fear when unknowns become pawns in a devilish ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of living through and primeval wickedness that will remodel horror this harvest season. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy motion picture follows five young adults who are stirred stranded in a unreachable hideaway under the oppressive power of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be drawn in by a cinematic venture that unites intense horror with mystical narratives, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a enduring tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the dark entities no longer develop from beyond, but rather from their core. This portrays the grimmest version of every character. The result is a intense identity crisis where the conflict becomes a relentless fight between purity and corruption.


In a barren landscape, five souls find themselves marooned under the evil effect and control of a enigmatic spirit. As the victims becomes unresisting to deny her dominion, severed and tracked by powers inconceivable, they are driven to confront their inner demons while the deathwatch relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and teams splinter, prompting each soul to reflect on their personhood and the concept of volition itself. The intensity surge with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to draw upon elemental fright, an evil from prehistory, influencing our fears, and questioning a power that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure watchers no matter where they are can watch this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has gathered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, taking the terror to a global viewership.


Make sure to see this visceral journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For film updates, production insights, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets domestic schedule fuses legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, set against returning-series thunder

From endurance-driven terror rooted in scriptural legend and onward to installment follow-ups and incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified paired with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio powerhouses stabilize the year using marquee IP, while OTT services front-load the fall with debut heat as well as ancestral chills. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is propelled by the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal sets the tone with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

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, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. 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, Directed by 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.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
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.

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

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: 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. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new spook slate: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar designed for screams

Dek The emerging horror slate packs up front with a January cluster, following that carries through summer, and running into the year-end corridor, braiding brand heft, original angles, and well-timed release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that convert these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has proven to be the bankable play in release plans, a genre that can expand when it hits and still buffer the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead social chatter, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The trend flowed into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and untested plays, and a re-energized priority on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the genre now slots in as a flex slot on the schedule. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, generate a sharp concept for creative and platform-native cuts, and outpace with viewers that arrive on advance nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release fires. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 setup indicates conviction in that equation. The calendar begins with a busy January run, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and beyond. The layout also highlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just rolling another chapter. They are working to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That combination delivers 2026 a smart balance of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected built on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount check over here also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and quick hits that interweaves affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to dominate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven treatment can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror blast that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can increase premium booking interest and fandom activation.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video combines licensed films with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to launch and framing as events launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a standard theatrical run for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Expect 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 jointly, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 in tandem, permits marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker 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 permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genes. 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 heartbroken man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting scenario that plays with the horror of a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral 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 spoof revival that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: useful reference The Further opens again, with a fresh family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where midrange-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a Get More Info legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 grain, soundcraft, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.