Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

This haunting paranormal thriller from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a demonic experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping tale of resilience and primeval wickedness that will resculpt terror storytelling this harvest season. Crafted by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive thriller follows five individuals who suddenly rise isolated in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the menacing control of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a millennia-old Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be ensnared by a screen-based venture that blends instinctive fear with ancestral stories, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the fiends no longer form from external sources, but rather internally. This illustrates the most hidden shade of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the tension becomes a intense contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting terrain, five youths find themselves cornered under the malicious control and possession of a haunted entity. As the group becomes unable to oppose her manipulation, left alone and followed by beings ungraspable, they are pushed to deal with their core terrors while the doomsday meter ruthlessly pushes forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion escalates and friendships implode, compelling each figure to contemplate their personhood and the integrity of free will itself. The risk amplify with every heartbeat, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into pure dread, an entity rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in human fragility, and dealing with a spirit that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that evolution is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households no matter where they are can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has attracted over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, delivering the story to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this haunted voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these dark realities about free will.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, plus franchise surges

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with mythic scripture as well as series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted combined with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors lay down anchors with familiar IP, as SVOD players pack the fall with new perspectives set against mythic dread. Meanwhile, the independent cohort is catching the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered 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 clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. 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
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

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

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



The approaching fright year to come: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The emerging scare year clusters in short order with a January crush, following that extends through peak season, and deep into the festive period, combining franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the consistent lever in studio lineups, a vertical that can accelerate when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it does not. After the 2023 year reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious horror vehicles can steer the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for many shades, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of established brands and new packages, and a re-energized emphasis on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital and home streaming.

Planners observe the category now acts as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can bow on most weekends, offer a quick sell for marketing and reels, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on Thursday nights and continue through the second frame if the entry delivers. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 plan shows belief in that equation. The slate begins with a weighty January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just rolling another chapter. They are working to present continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that flags a reframed mood or a casting pivot that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, real effects and specific settings. That pairing delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a roots-evoking treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected anchored in classic imagery, character previews, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will go after general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that hybridizes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be 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 makes room for a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are branded as event films, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror jolt that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature work, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that amplifies both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival wins, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern sonics and picture. 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 positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to broaden. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Keep an eye 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 in tandem, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a parallel release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind these films suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then capitalizing 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 expand 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 ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that leverages the dread of a child’s mercurial interpretations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and star-led 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 comic send-up that needles in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Source Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room 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 coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 chase continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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.

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.