Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A chilling otherworldly horror tale from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval fear when drifters become victims in a satanic maze. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of resistance and primeval wickedness that will reshape genre cinema this fall. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic tale follows five people who are stirred stranded in a secluded shelter under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a female lead consumed by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a immersive event that integrates visceral dread with mystical narratives, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the presences no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the haunting dimension of the group. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the tension becomes a soul-crushing struggle between innocence and sin.


In a haunting landscape, five campers find themselves isolated under the ominous rule and domination of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes incapable to withstand her command, marooned and attacked by entities beyond reason, they are obligated to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the time relentlessly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion grows and teams break, urging each soul to question their being and the integrity of decision-making itself. The threat surge with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that weaves together occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover raw dread, an spirit born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and challenging a evil that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so deep.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure fans no matter where they are can watch this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has racked up over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this mind-warping descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to dive into these fearful discoveries about existence.


For featurettes, director cuts, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s inflection point: the year 2025 stateside slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Spanning survival horror grounded in scriptural legend and including returning series in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned and tactically planned year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio powerhouses bookend the months through proven series, in parallel OTT services pack the fall with discovery plays plus old-world menace. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, 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 follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. 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.

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 bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS 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, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching chiller release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The upcoming scare slate crams in short order with a January crush, then rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can scale when it resonates and still safeguard the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the national conversation, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is demand for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium home window and digital services.

Planners observe the space now performs as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can premiere on almost any weekend, offer a simple premise for ad units and platform-native cuts, and over-index with patrons that arrive on Thursday nights and return through the second weekend if the film delivers. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs comfort in that dynamic. The calendar launches with a thick January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that connects to the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the expanded integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and move wide at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand management across brand ecosystems and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just releasing another next film. They are trying to present lineage with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting choice that reconnects a upcoming film to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating material texture, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of trust and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three discrete bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are treated as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first style can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, October hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival additions, confirming horror entries closer to drop and framing as events premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the configuration is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps outline the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a parallel release from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month winds down 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 credible, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring seed summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes 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 splits 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 hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor 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 extend 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 continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

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

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that channels the fear through a youth’s volatile subjective view. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural 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 spoof revival that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. 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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. 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 period language and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the news spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.