Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One unnerving metaphysical nightmare movie from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic terror when unrelated individuals become instruments in a cursed conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of continuance and ancient evil that will resculpt the fear genre this season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic tale follows five strangers who awaken stuck in a off-grid lodge under the ominous command of Kyra, a central character consumed by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be seized by a big screen venture that weaves together deep-seated panic with mythic lore, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a long-standing element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the spirits no longer arise outside the characters, but rather inside them. This embodies the most terrifying part of all involved. The result is a relentless moral showdown where the emotions becomes a ongoing push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken backcountry, five souls find themselves isolated under the sinister control and domination of a elusive apparition. As the ensemble becomes incapable to withstand her power, severed and targeted by creatures unnamable, they are cornered to confront their inner demons while the hours ruthlessly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and friendships splinter, compelling each cast member to scrutinize their true nature and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The danger climb with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract ancestral fear, an malevolence that existed before mankind, feeding on soul-level flaws, and navigating a will that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing users around the globe can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these unholy truths about our species.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. rollouts melds old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside series shake-ups

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with ancient scripture to installment follow-ups together with surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned in tandem with intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios stabilize the year with franchise anchors, as SVOD players pack the fall with debut heat and old-world menace. Meanwhile, independent banners is propelled by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal sets the tone with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

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

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. 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 serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 coming 2026 Horror lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek: The current horror calendar loads immediately with a January crush, and then runs through the summer months, and pushing into the festive period, weaving brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the sturdy counterweight in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded buyers that efficiently budgeted fright engines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where resurrections and awards-minded projects proved there is an opening for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with strategic blocks, a mix of established brands and new concepts, and a sharpened emphasis on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Marketers add the category now performs as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, provide a clear pitch for spots and vertical videos, and overperform with ticket buyers that arrive on first-look nights and keep coming through the next weekend if the picture satisfies. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates certainty in that logic. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a fall corridor that connects to All Hallows period and afterwards. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and move wide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand strategy across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studios are not just rolling another installment. They are aiming to frame threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a tonal shift or a star attachment that connects a incoming chapter to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to on-set craft, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That combination affords 2026 a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a memory-charged strategy without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that mixes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived Get More Info in before. Peele’s work are treated as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to lead 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that boosts both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using curated hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries tight to release and staging as events launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and increase ambition. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and technical spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to fan conventions and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month concludes 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 variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that put concept first.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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

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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that teases the terror of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and star-fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that teases of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. 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: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. 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 period-precise speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 value-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 work those windows. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 sampler, 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 leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, 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 dimensionality, sonics, and cinematography 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 Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.