Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This frightening occult fear-driven tale from cinematographer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval force when drifters become puppets in a cursed experiment. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of living through and prehistoric entity that will redefine the fear genre this scare season. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic tale follows five unknowns who are stirred caught in a off-grid shack under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a legendary biblical force. Ready yourself to be immersed by a screen-based display that fuses visceral dread with ancient myths, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the spirits no longer come from a different plane, but rather from within. This depicts the haunting aspect of every character. The result is a riveting mental war where the plotline becomes a brutal fight between right and wrong.


In a forsaken terrain, five campers find themselves marooned under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a elusive spirit. As the companions becomes paralyzed to resist her dominion, severed and tracked by entities unimaginable, they are made to battle their greatest panics while the final hour brutally runs out toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension deepens and friendships collapse, demanding each survivor to challenge their personhood and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The consequences intensify with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel pure dread, an force older than civilization itself, channeling itself through mental cracks, and navigating a presence that redefines identity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that evolution is shocking because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving users in all regions can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to experience these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For cast commentary, special features, and news from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 stateside slate integrates ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with biblical myth as well as returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms front-load the fall with debut heat as well as scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is catching the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are targeted, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting 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. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, 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 film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. 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 With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

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

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
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
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear 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 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fright release year: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, together with A busy Calendar Built For frights

Dek The brand-new genre year builds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then rolls through the mid-year, and well into the late-year period, combining franchise firepower, creative pitches, and smart counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and platform-native promos that pivot the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has become the most reliable counterweight in release strategies, a vertical that can accelerate when it catches and still insulate the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reminded greenlighters that mid-range scare machines can command the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The carry extended into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets highlighted there is space for a spectrum, from series extensions to original one-offs that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with mapped-out bands, a combination of brand names and new pitches, and a sharpened stance on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now operates like a flex slot on the distribution slate. The genre can premiere on many corridors, furnish a simple premise for previews and short-form placements, and over-index with moviegoers that line up on first-look nights and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the offering connects. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence exhibits assurance in that model. The slate rolls out with a stacked January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a autumn push that connects to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The arrangement also highlights the increasing integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is franchise tending across unified worlds and legacy IP. Major shops are not just making another return. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that flags a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a new entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into in-camera technique, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That convergence hands 2026 a strong blend of known notes and novelty, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a throwback-friendly treatment without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that melds devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to lead 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, on-set effects led execution can feel high-value on a lean spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 artifacts around environmental design, and creature work, elements that can accelerate premium screens and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time steeped in lycan lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances licensed content with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival snaps, confirming horror entries closer to launch and framing as events go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By share, the 2026 slate tips toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and stretch the story. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, enables marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries point to a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit news on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. 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 serious, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 abrasive boss push to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 in-home haunting scenario that leverages the fright of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led ghost thriller.

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 reboot that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 breaks out, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. 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-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 sleeper chase 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 surprise over-performer 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, 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 pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with 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 command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, and visual design 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.