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

An haunting metaphysical terror film from screenwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primeval terror when newcomers become subjects in a supernatural struggle. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of endurance and age-old darkness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic story follows five people who wake up locked in a secluded shelter under the malignant will of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be gripped by a narrative adventure that blends primitive horror with legendary tales, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the fiends no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This illustrates the most hidden aspect of all involved. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the tension becomes a ongoing push-pull between heaven and hell.


In a desolate wilderness, five youths find themselves sealed under the malevolent aura and haunting of a unidentified female presence. As the companions becomes powerless to break her command, disconnected and targeted by beings beyond comprehension, they are confronted to endure their inner horrors while the clock ruthlessly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and friendships disintegrate, forcing each figure to scrutinize their existence and the principle of independent thought itself. The intensity rise with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that fuses mystical fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to extract basic terror, an threat older than civilization itself, emerging via psychological breaks, and navigating a presence that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that conversion is emotionally raw because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing viewers from coast to coast can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these haunting secrets about the soul.


For film updates, making-of footage, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate weaves myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, and franchise surges

Ranging from grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes and onward to IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most textured as well as strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, even as OTT services load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as scriptural shivers. In parallel, festival-forward creators is catching the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring 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 project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

What to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming fright year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The upcoming genre slate packs from day one with a January logjam, subsequently flows through the summer months, and straight through the holiday stretch, braiding series momentum, new concepts, and shrewd counterplay. Distributors with platforms are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that pivot genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the consistent lever in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it connects and still buffer the floor when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that cost-conscious shockers can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films signaled there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across players, with strategic blocks, a mix of known properties and untested plays, and a tightened priority on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital and SVOD.

Buyers contend the horror lane now operates like a flex slot on the slate. Horror can bow on open real estate, yield a sharp concept for marketing and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with viewers that arrive on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the picture lands. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals comfort in that model. The calendar begins with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also features the increasing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just greenlighting another entry. They are seeking to position connection with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that announces a new vibe or a star attachment that ties a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination hands the 2026 slate a smart balance of known notes and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign driven by iconic art, first images of characters, and a tease cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror uncanny live moments and micro spots that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart 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 focus to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ladder that amplifies both initial urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using timely promos, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries near launch and elevating as drops arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. 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+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The risk, as ever, is movies diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror foreshadow a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

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 foggy reset amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends 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 stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. 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 loss-struck man’s intelligent companion turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a desolate island as the control balance reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that interrogates the chill of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. 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: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top great post to read cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound, 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, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.