Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This chilling occult horror tale from narrative craftsman / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old curse when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a devilish experiment. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of resistance and primordial malevolence that will remodel scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody fearfest follows five teens who are stirred sealed in a secluded lodge under the ominous rule of Kyra, a central character overtaken by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Get ready to be captivated by a audio-visual display that melds visceral dread with arcane tradition, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a well-established fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is subverted when the entities no longer develop from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the grimmest side of the players. The result is a emotionally raw identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving no-man's-land, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly force and domination of a mysterious figure. As the characters becomes paralyzed to combat her power, left alone and targeted by unknowns unfathomable, they are made to acknowledge their greatest panics while the timeline coldly draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion surges and teams shatter, requiring each soul to challenge their true nature and the notion of liberty itself. The intensity mount with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke ancestral fear, an darkness that predates humanity, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and testing a darkness that strips down our being when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that change is shocking because it is so private.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure fans globally can enjoy this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to a global viewership.


Experience this gripping fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to experience these unholy truths about free will.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. release slate integrates old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from endurance-driven terror infused with ancient scripture and stretching into returning series together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified and calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners hold down the year using marquee IP, even as OTT services pack the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with ancient terrors. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. 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.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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 canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The 2026 terror year to come: installments, Originals, in tandem with A hectic Calendar designed for jolts

Dek: The brand-new terror calendar crams right away with a January glut, thereafter stretches through peak season, and running into the winter holidays, blending IP strength, novel approaches, and shrewd counterplay. Studios with streamers are prioritizing mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that frame the slate’s entries into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has emerged as the surest lever in studio calendars, a pillar that can expand when it clicks and still limit the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can shape the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is room for multiple flavors, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the industry, with clear date clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived strategy on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and streaming.

Marketers add the genre now works like a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, create a clean hook for spots and shorts, and outpace with ticket buyers that respond on Thursday nights and stick through the next pass if the entry satisfies. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 setup indicates confidence in that logic. The slate kicks off with a heavy January block, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a fall run that reaches into the fright window and into early November. The calendar also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the proper time.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Studios are not just pushing another entry. They are looking to package ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that flags a new vibe or a cast configuration that reconnects a latest entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the top original plays are doubling down on material texture, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That fusion gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of known notes and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a handoff and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward treatment without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that escalates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and bite-size content that blurs devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are positioned as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček imp source heads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 loyalists and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival grabs, securing horror entries closer to launch and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of selective theatrical runs and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Keep an eye on 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 mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles 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, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the configuration is anchored enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps frame the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from thriving when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror suggest a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that leverages the chill of a child’s mercurial POV. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 flares, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household entangled with returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. 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 time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.