Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

An haunting mystic fright fest from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless evil when drifters become vehicles in a dark maze. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of overcoming and archaic horror that will reconstruct genre cinema this autumn. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy fearfest follows five characters who awaken stuck in a hidden shack under the ominous dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be ensnared by a visual presentation that merges instinctive fear with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a well-established concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the spirits no longer form from external sources, but rather inside them. This symbolizes the most sinister side of all involved. The result is a intense inner struggle where the tension becomes a soul-crushing struggle between good and evil.


In a remote natural abyss, five figures find themselves isolated under the evil sway and domination of a unidentified female presence. As the characters becomes vulnerable to fight her control, left alone and followed by forces beyond comprehension, they are driven to deal with their soulful dreads while the moments coldly draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and associations splinter, requiring each protagonist to scrutinize their identity and the philosophy of free will itself. The intensity mount with every minute, delivering a frightening tale that merges demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to channel primal fear, an force from ancient eras, channeling itself through mental cracks, and highlighting a entity that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that shift is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing subscribers globally can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these haunting secrets about the mind.


For film updates, extra content, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets stateside slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, paired with returning-series thunder

From grit-forward survival fare drawn from near-Eastern lore as well as installment follow-ups in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most variegated combined with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios stabilize the year through proven series, at the same time subscription platforms saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside mythic dread. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the afterglow from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

SVOD originals harden up
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new chiller cycle: follow-ups, Originals, in tandem with A loaded Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The upcoming horror calendar packs at the outset with a January logjam, before it flows through June and July, and deep into the holiday stretch, combining brand heft, new concepts, and savvy counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are leaning into responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that convert horror entries into cross-demo moments.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has become the sturdy move in release plans, a pillar that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that responsibly budgeted fright engines can galvanize the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The run extended into 2025, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is space for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the field, with intentional bunching, a pairing of familiar brands and new packages, and a recommitted commitment on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now behaves like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can arrive on a wide range of weekends, offer a sharp concept for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with demo groups that lean in on early shows and maintain momentum through the week two if the title hits. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates trust in that engine. The year rolls out with a weighty January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The calendar also spotlights the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and roll out at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just mounting another return. They are shaping as lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that bridges a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are returning to on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That fusion hands 2026 a smart balance of familiarity and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character piece. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a memory-charged angle without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run leaning on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a promo sequence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an digital partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate creepy live activations and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are framed as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to maximize 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, on-set effects led style can feel big on a tight budget. Expect a red-band summer horror blast that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. 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+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public this content calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not stop a day-date move from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind 2026 horror telegraph a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 foggy reset amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week see here of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genes. 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 algorithmic partner shifts into something seductively lethal. 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch my company with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a little one’s wavering perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan entangled with older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.