Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An hair-raising spiritual horror tale from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old nightmare when unrelated individuals become subjects in a satanic ritual. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of struggle and forgotten curse that will alter the horror genre this scare season. Helmed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie fearfest follows five individuals who find themselves caught in a hidden cottage under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a possessed female haunted by a legendary holy text monster. Anticipate to be seized by a theatrical venture that unites bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is subverted when the presences no longer appear from beyond, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the malevolent shade of all involved. The result is a gripping emotional conflict where the events becomes a constant face-off between good and evil.


In a remote no-man's-land, five figures find themselves isolated under the sinister presence and domination of a haunted spirit. As the youths becomes unresisting to evade her grasp, stranded and stalked by spirits inconceivable, they are compelled to acknowledge their darkest emotions while the clock without pity runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and associations shatter, urging each protagonist to question their true nature and the concept of personal agency itself. The pressure magnify with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that combines supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken pure dread, an threat older than civilization itself, working through emotional vulnerability, and confronting a darkness that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the curse activates, and that change is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that customers in all regions can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, taking the terror to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this gripping path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these haunting secrets about our species.


For featurettes, extra content, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts braids together primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with last-stand terror drawn from scriptural legend and extending to installment follow-ups plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified in tandem with strategic year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors set cornerstones by way of signature titles, at the same time premium streamers stack the fall with emerging auteurs plus scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, independent banners is catching the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and those signature textures resurface: period tinged dread, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next fear slate: continuations, Originals, paired with A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The emerging scare year clusters early with a January bottleneck, and then carries through the summer months, and continuing into the holidays, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has solidified as the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can scale when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that cost-conscious fright engines can command the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films made clear there is appetite for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with obvious clusters, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a re-energized stance on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can bow on many corridors, yield a clear pitch for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with fans that respond on advance nights and continue through the week two if the film hits. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm signals assurance in that playbook. The slate rolls out with a loaded January band, then targets spring into early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a fall cadence that stretches into late October and past the holiday. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across shared universes and legacy franchises. The companies are not just pushing another next film. They are setting up lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that flags a tonal shift or a casting pivot that links a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That blend hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket bets that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a memory-charged approach without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout stacked with franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short reels that interweaves romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered mix can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival snaps, locking in horror entries tight to release and framing as events arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. 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 in concert, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind this slate point to a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which fit with fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is busy. 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 heftier brand moves. The month concludes 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 formidable, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds have a peek at this web-site older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical 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 prickly boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting piece that toys with the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family snared by residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. 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 ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster 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 exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and image-making 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.