Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming October 2025 across leading streamers

One frightening paranormal suspense film from narrative craftsman / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an prehistoric malevolence when unfamiliar people become pawns in a dark contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of living through and timeless dread that will redefine scare flicks this spooky time. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive fearfest follows five characters who wake up imprisoned in a remote cottage under the sinister will of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a prehistoric biblical force. Be prepared to be immersed by a theatrical outing that melds visceral dread with biblical origins, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a classic tradition in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer manifest outside the characters, but rather from within. This portrays the malevolent corner of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the narrative becomes a relentless struggle between virtue and vice.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five adults find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish grip and control of a elusive person. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to evade her power, abandoned and followed by entities ungraspable, they are obligated to face their greatest panics while the moments relentlessly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety grows and alliances splinter, urging each protagonist to reconsider their values and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The tension magnify with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to channel basic terror, an curse beyond recorded history, manipulating our fears, and testing a entity that strips down our being when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring subscribers in all regions can be part of this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. lineup integrates Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, alongside returning-series thunder

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by ancient scripture and including IP renewals as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex combined with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios lay down anchors through proven series, simultaneously platform operators load up the fall with new perspectives as well as old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite 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. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The oncoming Horror year to come: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, plus A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh scare year builds from the jump with a January traffic jam, and then runs through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, fusing IP strength, fresh ideas, and strategic calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that shape these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the steady lever in studio slates, a category that can scale when it resonates and still mitigate the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted shockers can own cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for different modes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the industry, with defined corridors, a blend of household franchises and new pitches, and a recommitted emphasis on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a clean hook for ad units and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that respond on previews Thursday and sustain through the week two if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence underscores belief in that setup. The calendar commences with a weighty January block, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall run that runs into the Halloween corridor and into November. The map also highlights the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a new vibe or a ensemble decision that ties a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, special makeup and grounded locations. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a legacy-leaning framework without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push centered on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that melds attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are framed as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, physical-effects centered mix can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build assets around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants 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 centered on obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, timing horror entries near their drops and turning into events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to link the films through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which play well in fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos navigate here spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the chain of command flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and creeping 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 chiller that teases the horror of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated 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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. 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 era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first 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. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, 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 materiality, sound field, and imagery 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 Is Well Positioned

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