Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One frightening otherworldly terror film from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old horror when guests become proxies in a demonic struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of overcoming and archaic horror that will remodel scare flicks this fall. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five strangers who wake up imprisoned in a far-off structure under the ominous sway of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be ensnared by a visual venture that weaves together deep-seated panic with timeless legends, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a well-established theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the forces no longer descend from a different plane, but rather from their core. This suggests the darkest part of the cast. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the plotline becomes a ongoing contest between good and evil.


In a remote woodland, five youths find themselves caught under the malevolent dominion and control of a obscure figure. As the team becomes unresisting to escape her dominion, cut off and attacked by presences unimaginable, they are forced to deal with their darkest emotions while the time without pity strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion grows and connections erode, requiring each cast member to examine their values and the principle of freedom of choice itself. The intensity amplify with every breath, delivering a frightening tale that merges otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore primitive panic, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, influencing emotional fractures, and navigating a spirit that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers internationally can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has collected over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Don’t miss this visceral journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these terrifying truths about the mind.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and announcements from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts weaves ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, together with brand-name tremors

Across last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend as well as returning series in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most complex combined with precision-timed year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, as streamers crowd the fall with new perspectives together with archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set 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. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with 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 piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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 plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

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. It is a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop 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.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 chiller year to come: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre slate stacks up front with a January crush, thereafter rolls through peak season, and running into the holiday stretch, marrying legacy muscle, new voices, and strategic counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are leaning into right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has shown itself to be the steady play in annual schedules, a corner that can expand when it performs and still limit the drag when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted chillers can command the discourse, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The head of steam fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is an opening for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a pairing of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated attention on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the category now behaves like a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, yield a quick sell for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that arrive on Thursday nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the film pays off. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates confidence in that logic. The slate kicks off with a stacked January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a fall corridor that pushes into the Halloween corridor and into early November. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are setting up lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing gives 2026 a smart balance of brand comfort and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a throwback-friendly bent without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on iconic art, character previews, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will spotlight. As a counterweight in summer, this one will pursue general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and short reels that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar horror currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are set up as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around world-building, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror imp source characterized by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines acquired titles with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about originals and festival wins, slotting horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and swift platform pivots that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern sonics 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 positioned a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a parallel release from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate foreshadow a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play 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 rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that lean on concept not plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner shifts into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that plays with the dread of a child’s wobbly perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-supported and A-list fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: production booked 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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned 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 old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. 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: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, and visual design 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 Looks Exciting

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.