Age-old Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

One haunting spiritual suspense film from cinematographer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient fear when outsiders become victims in a devilish maze. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense story of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will redefine the fear genre this harvest season. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody film follows five unacquainted souls who wake up stranded in a wooded house under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a prehistoric holy text monster. Prepare to be enthralled by a big screen spectacle that melds bodily fright with biblical origins, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is twisted when the forces no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This illustrates the haunting aspect of these individuals. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the story becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between right and wrong.


In a barren no-man's-land, five figures find themselves cornered under the sinister dominion and haunting of a obscure figure. As the team becomes vulnerable to withstand her influence, isolated and targeted by powers indescribable, they are required to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the clock harrowingly runs out toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and bonds break, prompting each survivor to examine their personhood and the idea of free will itself. The cost magnify with every second, delivering a chilling narrative that blends ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover deep fear, an force older than civilization itself, emerging via fragile psyche, and highlighting a will that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing watchers across the world can enjoy this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original clip, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, giving access to the movie to viewers around the world.


Join this unforgettable fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to confront these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For director insights, director cuts, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the official website.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate fuses Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, and returning-series thunder

From survivor-centric dread infused with primordial scripture to brand-name continuations in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated combined with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, concurrently OTT services front-load the fall with debut heat set against mythic dread. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is catching the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, the WB camp bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and 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. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting 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.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, 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.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

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

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next Horror year to come: brand plays, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek The fresh genre cycle stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, before it runs through the summer months, and pushing into the festive period, fusing brand heft, new voices, and strategic calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that convert these offerings into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the most reliable lever in studio slates, a genre that can scale when it hits and still insulate the drawdown when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that efficiently budgeted fright engines can dominate social chatter, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles highlighted there is a lane for several lanes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with strategic blocks, a balance of legacy names and original hooks, and a tightened commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on paid VOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for spots and social clips, and outperform with demo groups that come out on early shows and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the movie satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout signals comfort in that engine. The year opens with a heavy January run, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall corridor that flows toward late October and into November. The grid also spotlights the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform a title, grow buzz, and broaden at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. Studios are not just releasing another entry. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that flags a re-angled tone or a casting choice that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring on-set craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a throwback-friendly strategy without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave fueled by legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise uncanny live moments and short reels that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are marketed as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-effects forward strategy can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror jolt that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video balances licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision releases and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with award winners or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. 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 gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out my review here of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a dual release from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this slate forecast a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror 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 be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first game 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 severe boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 home-set haunting narrative that leverages the fright of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: navigate here forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led eerie suspense.

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 spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which reduces inter-title 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 outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-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 use those gaps. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.