Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A bone-chilling spectral suspense film from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic nightmare when guests become conduits in a dark conflict. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of resistance and old world terror that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this October. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and shadowy film follows five teens who snap to stuck in a remote cabin under the malignant grip of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a ancient holy text monster. Be warned to be drawn in by a big screen adventure that intertwines gut-punch terror with ancient myths, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is subverted when the forces no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This portrays the malevolent dimension of the players. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the intensity becomes a ongoing battle between good and evil.


In a remote natural abyss, five friends find themselves caught under the evil influence and possession of a shadowy spirit. As the victims becomes powerless to fight her power, left alone and pursued by forces unnamable, they are thrust to acknowledge their inner demons while the doomsday meter unceasingly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety rises and partnerships disintegrate, requiring each cast member to challenge their existence and the concept of conscious will itself. The risk climb with every breath, delivering a horror experience that intertwines otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover ancestral fear, an presence that predates humanity, emerging via mental cracks, and highlighting a evil that erodes the self when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that shift is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that customers across the world can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Join this bone-rattling journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to dive into these chilling revelations about the psyche.


For director insights, production news, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets domestic schedule integrates Mythic Possession, underground frights, together with tentpole growls

Spanning life-or-death fear inspired by scriptural legend and stretching into franchise returns together with focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered combined with tactically planned year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, even as streaming platforms crowd the fall with debut heat and scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by 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 reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked 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. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, filmmaker-first projects, plus A loaded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek: The emerging horror calendar packs up front with a January glut, from there unfolds through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, blending legacy muscle, inventive spins, and calculated counterweight. The major players are committing to tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that turn genre releases into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has become the predictable move in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it clicks and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for top brass that responsibly budgeted entries can shape the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles underscored there is demand for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a sharpened stance on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and platforms.

Executives say the category now operates like a utility player on the distribution slate. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a grabby hook for spots and reels, and over-index with fans that arrive on first-look nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the release fires. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan shows belief in that logic. The slate opens with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a late-year stretch that extends to the fright window and afterwards. The map also underscores the deeper integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A companion trend is series management across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Studios are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are working to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that suggests a refreshed voice or a talent selection that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the top original plays are doubling down on physical effects work, in-camera effects and specific settings. That mix provides 2026 a solid mix of comfort and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance conveys a roots-evoking approach without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on iconic art, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that mutates into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror strange in-person beats and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are get redirected here branded as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led approach can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand 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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using curated hubs, fright rows, and featured rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to expand. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. 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 in concert, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Early-year through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch 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 transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that explores the panic of a child’s fragile perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. 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: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a this website Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.