Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This haunting otherworldly suspense film from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval entity when unrelated individuals become subjects in a dark experiment. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of survival and ancient evil that will alter fear-driven cinema this fall. Visualized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and atmospheric cinema piece follows five individuals who find themselves ensnared in a off-grid dwelling under the unfriendly power of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be immersed by a theatrical display that weaves together instinctive fear with ancient myths, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the presences no longer develop outside the characters, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the shadowy element of the cast. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the suspense becomes a constant push-pull between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned outland, five adults find themselves isolated under the dark aura and infestation of a unknown character. As the survivors becomes powerless to withstand her curse, disconnected and hunted by entities unfathomable, they are obligated to face their deepest fears while the doomsday meter without pause strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and ties disintegrate, forcing each protagonist to reconsider their essence and the structure of freedom of choice itself. The cost climb with every minute, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates ghostly evil with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon ancestral fear, an curse older than civilization itself, operating within our fears, and questioning a force that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing fans no matter where they are can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this visceral spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to dive into these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For featurettes, director cuts, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle American release plan integrates myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside franchise surges

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in scriptural legend all the way to returning series together with surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted and carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors plant stakes across the year with known properties, even as digital services load up the fall with new perspectives and legend-coded dread. At the same time, the independent cohort is riding the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma driven plotting, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The new genre release year: entries, Originals, paired with A packed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The current genre slate clusters from the jump with a January logjam, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and well into the late-year period, marrying brand heft, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and viral-minded pushes that transform these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has turned into the dependable tool in release plans, a segment that can expand when it hits and still limit the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught greenlighters that mid-range genre plays can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The trend extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films signaled there is space for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a balance of brand names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated commitment on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, provide a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with ticket buyers that lean in on previews Thursday and return through the next pass if the feature connects. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a autumn push that carries into All Hallows period and afterwards. The map also illustrates the expanded integration of boutique distributors and streamers that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just turning out another continuation. They are looking to package story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are favoring physical effects work, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach hints at a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on signature symbols, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will build mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, somber, and commercial: a grieving man activates an machine companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to command 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that amplifies both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc 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 offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Plan on 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 partners, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror indicate a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that leverages the fear of a child’s fragile point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

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 parody return that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. 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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The surprise-hit pursuit 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 maximize those pockets. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience Source for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, 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 curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.