Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An blood-curdling supernatural fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval fear when drifters become subjects in a satanic ceremony. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of resilience and mythic evil that will redefine the fear genre this ghoul season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy feature follows five unacquainted souls who awaken stranded in a remote shelter under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a prehistoric biblical demon. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that integrates deep-seated panic with mythic lore, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established tradition in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the forces no longer appear externally, but rather deep within. This marks the most sinister shade of the protagonists. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the drama becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a forsaken landscape, five characters find themselves confined under the sinister sway and haunting of a enigmatic person. As the characters becomes defenseless to fight her rule, marooned and stalked by forces unnamable, they are confronted to stand before their deepest fears while the doomsday meter coldly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and teams crack, compelling each individual to scrutinize their identity and the concept of volition itself. The hazard amplify with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract instinctual horror, an power rooted in antiquity, operating within soul-level flaws, and highlighting a darkness that questions who we are when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering viewers from coast to coast can dive into this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this life-altering journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For exclusive trailers, making-of footage, and insider scoops from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts blends biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Running from life-or-death fear saturated with biblical myth to returning series and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned paired with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, while streamers saturate the fall with discovery plays as well as archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is carried on the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

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

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning 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 now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to 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. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming scare lineup: installments, fresh concepts, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The emerging scare slate packs immediately with a January traffic jam, following that extends through summer corridors, and well into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has established itself as the surest option in studio calendars, a segment that can expand when it resonates and still cushion the risk when it does not. After 2023 signaled to leaders that cost-conscious scare machines can command the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The trend flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of established brands and new pitches, and a revived attention on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and streaming.

Executives say the category now performs as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can premiere on many corridors, furnish a grabby hook for ad units and vertical videos, and outperform with viewers that line up on Thursday nights and continue through the next weekend if the film satisfies. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout demonstrates conviction in that approach. The slate commences with a thick January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a late-year stretch that pushes into the fright window and past the holiday. The arrangement also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and broaden at the timely point.

Another broad trend is brand management across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that reconnects a next entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing physical effects work, physical gags and concrete locations. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of known notes and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a classic-referencing campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave centered on franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a promo sequence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will generate mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are positioned as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a tactile, makeup-driven strategy can feel big on a controlled budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 directive to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and convention buzz.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves library titles with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled 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 positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued lean toward real, location-led 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 headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks click to read more with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop 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 cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 battle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that plays with the terror of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family lashed to past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. 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.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and picture 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.