Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One haunting supernatural suspense story from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric malevolence when outsiders become subjects in a dark conflict. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of overcoming and mythic evil that will revolutionize horror this harvest season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and cinematic fearfest follows five teens who suddenly rise isolated in a wooded shelter under the sinister control of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a legendary holy text monster. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture venture that combines visceral dread with arcane tradition, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored narrative in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is subverted when the fiends no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the most sinister part of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between right and wrong.


In a isolated wilderness, five friends find themselves isolated under the unholy control and infestation of a haunted entity. As the group becomes unresisting to withstand her will, severed and pursued by forces beyond comprehension, they are made to stand before their core terrors while the time coldly draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust amplifies and partnerships shatter, prompting each member to rethink their true nature and the nature of volition itself. The cost intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that combines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into primal fear, an evil born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in human fragility, and examining a evil that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that evolution is eerie because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers no matter where they are can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this visceral spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For film updates, special features, and press updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. Slate integrates primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Running from grit-forward survival fare infused with biblical myth all the way to franchise returns paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the richest as well as strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios plant stakes across the year through proven series, simultaneously OTT services crowd the fall with new perspectives together with ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is carried on the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by 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.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. 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 are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 genre cycle: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, and also A hectic Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The upcoming terror year clusters immediately with a January cluster, from there flows through June and July, and carrying into the winter holidays, blending brand heft, inventive spins, and tactical counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the dependable tool in studio slates, a category that can expand when it hits and still mitigate the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can steer audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The energy rolled into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets made clear there is room for varied styles, from franchise continuations to original features that perform internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a blend of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated commitment on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and digital services.

Insiders argue the category now performs as a versatile piece on the rollout map. Horror can kick off on many corridors, create a grabby hook for trailers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with patrons that lean in on Thursday nights and sustain through the next pass if the offering fires. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that dynamic. The slate opens with a front-loaded January band, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a October build that flows toward late October and into post-Halloween. The calendar also features the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can platform a title, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and classic IP. The companies are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a new tone or a casting choice that threads a next film to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring physical effects work, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That mix produces 2026 a solid mix of comfort and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a throwback-friendly mode without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by legacy iconography, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick pivots to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is simple, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man activates an algorithmic mate that evolves into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interlaces devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film horror books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are framed as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to command 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward execution can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video combines acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival deals, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and staging as events rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to broaden. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow 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 produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta-horror reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons 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 real, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to 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 grieving man’s virtual companion unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that refracts terror through a youngster’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. 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 period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and cinematography 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 Shapes Up Strong

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.