Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One eerie otherworldly scare-fest from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an ancient dread when unknowns become pawns in a supernatural ordeal. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful depiction of struggle and timeless dread that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy motion picture follows five individuals who awaken stranded in a cut-off dwelling under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Prepare to be drawn in by a filmic spectacle that weaves together raw fear with timeless legends, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is inverted when the monsters no longer originate beyond the self, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the darkest layer of the players. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the story becomes a unforgiving clash between light and darkness.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five adults find themselves caught under the malicious force and possession of a elusive person. As the victims becomes incapacitated to oppose her will, isolated and attacked by forces impossible to understand, they are required to face their darkest emotions while the hours mercilessly draws closer toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and partnerships collapse, pressuring each cast member to scrutinize their true nature and the concept of volition itself. The pressure grow with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover core terror, an threat before modern man, working through our weaknesses, and questioning a being that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is oblivious until the demon emerges, and that conversion is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users in all regions can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this life-altering descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these unholy truths about the soul.


For teasers, filmmaker commentary, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit the official digital haunt.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts interlaces primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, plus returning-series thunder

Across pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with biblical myth all the way to franchise returns paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered plus calculated campaign year in a decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, in parallel platform operators crowd the fall with unboxed visions paired with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is riding the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal fires the first shot with a big gambit: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots 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.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming fright slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar designed for shocks

Dek The current terror season clusters at the outset with a January bottleneck, after that unfolds through the mid-year, and continuing into the winter holidays, marrying series momentum, untold stories, and shrewd calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are embracing right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that elevate these films into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has emerged as the sturdy play in studio slates, a genre that can surge when it resonates and still limit the drag when it falls short. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that disciplined-budget fright engines can galvanize the discourse, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The upswing pushed into 2025, where returns and elevated films signaled there is space for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to one-and-done originals that scale internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across players, with obvious clusters, a harmony of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived commitment on cinema windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and platforms.

Marketers add the space now acts as a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on nearly any frame, supply a easy sell for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering pays off. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout signals confidence in that setup. The calendar begins with a weighty January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall corridor that connects to the fright window and past Halloween. The program also features the greater integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and widen at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across linked properties and legacy franchises. The studios are not just making another chapter. They are moving to present lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting pivot that connects a next film to a first wave. At the same time, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating tactile craft, in-camera effects and specific settings. That convergence yields the 2026 slate a smart balance of brand comfort and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a throwback-friendly mode without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run centered on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide buzz through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that turns into a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interlaces devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title drop to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, in-camera leaning approach can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can increase premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival buys, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded 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. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is steady enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not block a dual release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 meaningful, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage click site to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting premise that routes the horror through a young child’s flickering perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family linked to returning horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 language and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 2026 and why now

Three practical forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often Source becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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 this page Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined 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 visual texture, sound, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.