Primordial Horror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, streaming October 2025 on major streaming services

One bone-chilling paranormal thriller from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an ancient nightmare when guests become conduits in a fiendish ceremony. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of staying alive and timeless dread that will transform the horror genre this season. Produced by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric fearfest follows five unknowns who awaken sealed in a wooded structure under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a possessed female haunted by a legendary biblical demon. Prepare to be immersed by a visual presentation that merges bodily fright with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a time-honored foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is challenged when the beings no longer appear beyond the self, but rather inside them. This mirrors the most sinister side of the protagonists. The result is a intense psychological battle where the emotions becomes a perpetual battle between virtue and vice.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five campers find themselves confined under the sinister aura and spiritual invasion of a shadowy person. As the characters becomes incapacitated to withstand her grasp, abandoned and stalked by creatures beyond comprehension, they are driven to endure their greatest panics while the deathwatch relentlessly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and ties collapse, coercing each survivor to rethink their essence and the structure of liberty itself. The hazard mount with every instant, delivering a terror ride that merges supernatural terror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon raw dread, an spirit older than civilization itself, manifesting in our fears, and examining a spirit that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the invasion happens, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing streamers in all regions can face this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to viewers around the world.


Do not miss this cinematic descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these ghostly lessons about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, extra content, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate integrates biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside series shake-ups

Moving from survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore and including installment follow-ups alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered in tandem with strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, while digital services load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is fueled by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, 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 is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. 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, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
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 surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming chiller calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The new genre slate lines up at the outset with a January cluster, following that rolls through the mid-year, and continuing into the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, inventive spins, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that convert these pictures into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has grown into the surest option in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still hedge the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to studio brass that modestly budgeted entries can drive pop culture, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for many shades, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across players, with strategic blocks, a mix of known properties and new packages, and a tightened attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the space now performs as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, generate a easy sell for previews and TikTok spots, and over-index with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and sustain through the week two if the movie satisfies. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence shows trust in that model. The calendar begins with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that reaches into late October and past the holiday. The calendar also includes the increasing integration of specialized labels and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and expand at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is IP stewardship across unified worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just producing another installment. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that signals a re-angled tone or a casting move that reconnects a upcoming film to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are favoring hands-on technique, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That blend affords 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a roots-evoking campaign without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected stacked with signature symbols, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an machine companion that shifts into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and micro spots that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has established that a raw, practical-first approach can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around lore, and monster design, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that boosts both launch urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video combines library titles with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, timing horror entries tight to release and making event-like premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 runway 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 setup is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut this page is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, 2026 bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror point to a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and department features before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance shifts and paranoia creeps in. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that channels the fear through a young child’s volatile point of view. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned 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 ignites, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf Source 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, 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 tactility, acoustics, and imagery 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision where it matters, 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, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.