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

An bone-chilling unearthly suspense story from writer / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic horror when foreigners become pawns in a malevolent trial. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping story of perseverance and old world terror that will resculpt terror storytelling this fall. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive film follows five characters who snap to locked in a hidden lodge under the hostile manipulation of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Get ready to be drawn in by a filmic venture that harmonizes raw fear with biblical origins, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the demons no longer form from beyond, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the grimmest layer of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the tension becomes a relentless push-pull between good and evil.


In a remote backcountry, five youths find themselves confined under the sinister rule and domination of a unidentified person. As the team becomes defenseless to resist her rule, detached and hunted by evils beyond reason, they are forced to wrestle with their deepest fears while the timeline coldly runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and associations break, compelling each soul to reflect on their self and the notion of personal agency itself. The threat magnify with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into primal fear, an presence that existed before mankind, working through emotional vulnerability, and navigating a entity that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that evolution is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing fans around the globe can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


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


Be sure to catch this heart-stopping path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate blends myth-forward possession, underground frights, plus series shake-ups

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with near-Eastern lore through to canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered combined with precision-timed year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, in parallel platform operators crowd the fall with debut heat paired with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness 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. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

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

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

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Dials to Watch

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

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

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

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The fresh genre slate stacks from the jump with a January wave, then extends through the warm months, and well into the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and savvy counterplay. Distributors with platforms are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has solidified as the most reliable swing in programming grids, a lane that can scale when it catches and still insulate the downside when it underperforms. After the 2023 year signaled to leaders that disciplined-budget entries can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from returning installments to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with defined corridors, a balance of brand names and new pitches, and a tightened focus on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the space now serves as a swing piece on the schedule. Horror can open on many corridors, furnish a simple premise for trailers and shorts, and overperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and continue through the second frame if the movie hits. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping demonstrates assurance in that equation. The slate begins with a front-loaded January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a late-year stretch that runs into All Hallows period and into November. The calendar also features the expanded integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform a title, generate chatter, and move wide at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another follow-up. They are looking to package lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are returning to material texture, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That mix provides 2026 a confident blend of familiarity and freshness, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a roots-evoking framework without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Expect a marketing push stacked with iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and short reels that mixes romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to maximize 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster design, elements that can drive large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video balances licensed content with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, scheduling horror entries closer to drop and framing as events debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a paired of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined 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 announced a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Do not be surprised by 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 boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-date move from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 filmed consecutively, enables marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which favor con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is loaded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into 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-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

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

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance of power flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 chill, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that channels the fear through a kid’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled 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 erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. 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-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 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 work those windows. 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, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, 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, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.