Ancient Darkness Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

One chilling occult fear-driven tale from writer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old curse when foreigners become pawns in a satanic game. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of struggle and ancient evil that will reimagine horror this October. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five strangers who emerge sealed in a wilderness-bound structure under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a central character possessed by a ancient religious nightmare. Be prepared to be drawn in by a visual outing that combines instinctive fear with ancient myths, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the entities no longer come from external sources, but rather inside them. This illustrates the most hidden layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the narrative becomes a perpetual face-off between moral forces.


In a unforgiving outland, five youths find themselves confined under the unholy aura and haunting of a shadowy female figure. As the companions becomes unresisting to deny her influence, isolated and attacked by spirits unimaginable, they are compelled to confront their inner horrors while the countdown brutally pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and connections implode, urging each individual to evaluate their personhood and the principle of independent thought itself. The stakes accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a horror experience that connects ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into instinctual horror, an threat born of forgotten ages, manifesting in fragile psyche, and questioning a presence that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is harrowing because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure horror lovers worldwide can be part of this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has attracted over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this haunted ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these dark realities about human nature.


For cast commentary, extra content, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. lineup braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus IP aftershocks

Moving from life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology to franchise returns and incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with blueprinted year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, as subscription platforms prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is surfing the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

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

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the Warner lot releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed 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 evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

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

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming spook slate: continuations, non-franchise titles, together with A packed Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The upcoming genre calendar stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterweight. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in release plans, a genre that can lift when it clicks and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that efficiently budgeted fright engines can dominate the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The head of steam fed into 2025, where re-entries and elevated films made clear there is room for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a spread of brand names and fresh ideas, and a recommitted priority on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, provide a sharp concept for marketing and reels, and outperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the film pays off. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows faith in that dynamic. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the tightening integration of specialty arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and scale up at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a lead change that ties a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the same time, the helmers behind the top original plays are favoring physical effects work, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend delivers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a legacy-leaning strategy without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by iconic art, character previews, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s releases are sold as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, hands-on effects approach can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that fortifies both week-one demand and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of precision releases and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. 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 somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a standard theatrical run for the title, an positive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not stop a parallel release from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week check over here structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting tale that mediates the fear via a young child’s uneven inner lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that riffs on modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family caught in ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: active. 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 period language and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting 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 viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, horror Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and framing 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity 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, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.