Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across leading streamers

One bone-chilling otherworldly suspense film from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless terror when foreigners become instruments in a hellish struggle. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing journey of struggle and ancient evil that will alter scare flicks this October. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy screenplay follows five characters who come to stranded in a hidden structure under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Anticipate to be drawn in by a filmic outing that merges primitive horror with mythic lore, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the dark entities no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather internally. This represents the malevolent layer of the cast. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the narrative becomes a brutal struggle between light and darkness.


In a bleak wilderness, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly grip and spiritual invasion of a unidentified character. As the companions becomes vulnerable to resist her dominion, stranded and stalked by forces beyond reason, they are compelled to stand before their deepest fears while the countdown unforgivingly strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia intensifies and relationships crack, urging each individual to reconsider their self and the notion of volition itself. The threat magnify with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke basic terror, an power before modern man, feeding on inner turmoil, and confronting a force that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that transition is bone-chilling because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that viewers anywhere can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to international horror buffs.


Avoid skipping this visceral spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these spiritual awakenings about existence.


For cast commentary, extra content, and promotions from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror Turning Point: 2025 U.S. Slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, in parallel with series shake-ups

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by old testament echoes and extending to legacy revivals paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned plus carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio powerhouses bookend the months with franchise anchors, as platform operators stack the fall with new perspectives together with primordial unease. On the independent axis, horror’s indie wing is carried on the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

Universal begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson is back, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No canon weight. 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 Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
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 Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next scare year to come: Sequels, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek The arriving terror season lines up from day one with a January traffic jam, then carries through the summer months, and pushing into the winter holidays, mixing brand heft, new concepts, and well-timed alternatives. Studios with streamers are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that convert these pictures into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the bankable play in studio calendars, a space that can accelerate when it lands and still mitigate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget pictures can shape the discourse, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is an opening for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with intentional bunching, a pairing of legacy names and new packages, and a revived priority on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Executives say the category now functions as a wildcard on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, deliver a clear pitch for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with patrons that lean in on advance nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the offering connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout reflects assurance in that playbook. The calendar opens with a loaded January window, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into the next week. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just rolling another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a new vibe or a lead change that links a next entry to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, physical gags and specific settings. That interplay offers 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a fan-service aware campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with legacy iconography, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short-form creative that melds intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, in-camera leaning style can feel cinematic on a middle 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 non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as 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 explicit mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium format interest and community activity.

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 Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival deals, slotting horror entries near launch and framing as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with prestige directors or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc 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 proposition is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers grain and menace rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers useful reference that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. 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 pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale 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 to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

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

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 domestic haunting piece that interrogates the chill of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led eerie suspense.

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 skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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, have a peek here 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 visual texture, sound field, 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 update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.