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

A unnerving supernatural suspense story from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten entity when guests become vehicles in a diabolical struggle. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping episode of continuance and old world terror that will redefine terror storytelling this autumn. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy tale follows five people who are stirred trapped in a unreachable dwelling under the oppressive command of Kyra, a central character controlled by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be immersed by a visual outing that melds gut-punch terror with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring narrative in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the demons no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the darkest corner of every character. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing struggle between good and evil.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five youths find themselves isolated under the sinister rule and spiritual invasion of a obscure being. As the youths becomes incapable to combat her will, abandoned and tormented by terrors beyond reason, they are thrust to deal with their deepest fears while the clock ruthlessly winds toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and teams implode, pressuring each member to examine their identity and the idea of conscious will itself. The cost amplify with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that marries occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract pure dread, an evil from ancient eras, feeding on emotional fractures, and examining a force that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure users globally can survive this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to international horror buffs.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Confront *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. calendar weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, plus Franchise Rumbles

Running from grit-forward survival fare infused with near-Eastern lore to installment follow-ups in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned and calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors are anchoring the year through proven series, concurrently OTT services prime the fall with new voices plus primordial unease. On another front, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

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

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

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

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming terror release year: Sequels, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle builds right away with a January glut, and then carries through the mid-year, and far into the December corridor, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and data-minded alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it clicks and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that perform internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a run that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with obvious clusters, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, create a clear pitch for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the second weekend if the title fires. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits assurance in that dynamic. The year commences with a loaded January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a autumn stretch that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The program also shows the ongoing integration of indie arms and platforms that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and go nationwide at the timely point.

Another broad trend is series management across ongoing universes and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just pushing another continuation. They are trying to present lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that announces a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a handoff and a return-to-roots relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a nostalgia-forward framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout built on franchise iconography, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s team likely to renew eerie street stunts and quick hits that fuses intimacy and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are framed as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs 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 proven that a gritty, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around lore, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to launch and making event-like launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of precision releases and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Look for an A24 acquisition out 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 partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, this page Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre signal a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature work and production design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big 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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. 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 can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 surges 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 claw to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that interrogates the unease of a child’s fragile perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. 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.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 work those windows. 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sonics, and visuals 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, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.