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

An chilling mystic fear-driven tale from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval evil when outsiders become tokens in a fiendish ceremony. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of struggle and old world terror that will reshape fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric film follows five characters who suddenly rise trapped in a unreachable shack under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a time-worn religious nightmare. Be prepared to be hooked by a immersive event that merges instinctive fear with ancient myths, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a historical motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is flipped when the spirits no longer appear beyond the self, but rather from within. This depicts the most hidden side of these individuals. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the conflict becomes a unyielding fight between innocence and sin.


In a barren wild, five souls find themselves isolated under the possessive influence and grasp of a mysterious woman. As the team becomes paralyzed to deny her influence, stranded and targeted by spirits indescribable, they are made to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the time harrowingly pushes forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and friendships dissolve, driving each figure to evaluate their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The stakes climb with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that connects occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel core terror, an force older than civilization itself, filtering through mental cracks, and navigating a curse that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers internationally can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original clip, which has pulled in over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, exporting the fear to international horror buffs.


Experience this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these chilling revelations about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, director cuts, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate fuses Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside franchise surges

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with scriptural legend and stretching into brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest plus deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, while platform operators front-load the fall with new voices together with scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is catching the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer tapers, the WB camp launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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 evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, Originals, together with A loaded Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The arriving horror slate clusters early with a January bottleneck, thereafter stretches through summer corridors, and well into the winter holidays, balancing IP strength, untold stories, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are doubling down on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that elevate horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the surest counterweight in studio slates, a vertical that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that mid-range scare machines can drive the national conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and elevated films proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can arrive on most weekends, offer a quick sell for teasers and shorts, and outpace with audiences that appear on previews Thursday and return through the sophomore frame if the film delivers. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows faith in that setup. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The map also includes the continuing integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and move wide at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that reconnects a new installment to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That combination delivers 2026 a confident blend of comfort and discovery, which is why the genre horror exports well.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning campaign without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Expect a marketing push anchored in brand visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that becomes a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to replay eerie street stunts and snackable content that threads love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered style 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 world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 directive to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that amplifies both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival grabs, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops 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 converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline 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 simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern mix and grade. 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 telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Look for 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 as a pair, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 brooding contrast amid heavier IP. The month finishes 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 stiff, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first weblink teaser rhythm and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror 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 meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a desolate island as the control balance swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that toys with the chill of a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing 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 refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.