Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One haunting spectral terror film from creator / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried fear when guests become pawns in a fiendish ritual. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of struggle and old world terror that will reshape genre cinema this fall. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric fearfest follows five lost souls who come to isolated in a secluded cottage under the menacing manipulation of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be drawn in by a visual adventure that fuses 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.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay foundation in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer come from external sources, but rather from within. This represents the shadowy side of the victims. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the narrative becomes a unforgiving fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a wilderness-stricken backcountry, five campers find themselves sealed under the ghastly control and spiritual invasion of a unknown spirit. As the survivors becomes incapable to break her power, stranded and hunted by entities unimaginable, they are obligated to stand before their soulful dreads while the moments ruthlessly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and associations erode, prompting each protagonist to doubt their core and the notion of self-determination itself. The hazard surge with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon primal fear, an evil beyond recorded history, working through emotional fractures, and wrestling with a evil that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring customers everywhere can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has garnered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, taking the terror to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this haunted spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For exclusive trailers, on-set glimpses, and updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, and returning-series thunder

From grit-forward survival fare rooted in mythic scripture as well as canon extensions alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified along with strategic year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses set cornerstones via recognizable brands, at the same time subscription platforms front-load the fall with unboxed visions paired with primordial unease. At the same time, independent banners is fueled by the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures starts the year with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in 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.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 spook slate: continuations, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming terror calendar packs right away with a January pile-up, before it unfolds through summer, and carrying into the holiday stretch, braiding name recognition, creative pitches, and strategic calendar placement. Studios and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that transform genre titles into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the predictable tool in distribution calendars, a segment that can break out when it lands and still insulate the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 proved to studio brass that efficiently budgeted pictures can command the discourse, the following year kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing carried into 2025, where legacy revivals and prestige plays signaled there is a market for many shades, from continued chapters to director-led originals that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across companies, with intentional bunching, a mix of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a refocused eye on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now operates like a versatile piece on the release plan. The genre can arrive on most weekends, supply a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the follow-up frame if the picture fires. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout shows confidence in that engine. The slate kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The calendar also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and grow at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is series management across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that links a upcoming film to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing on-set craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That convergence provides 2026 a vital pairing of trust and invention, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push fueled by iconic art, character spotlights, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit uncanny live moments and short reels that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, practical-first style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on immersive craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a sequence that expands both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical rollout for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, the 2026 slate bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps help explain the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a parallel release from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any weblink recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which align with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. 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 machine mate becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, imp source only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that leverages the panic of a child’s tricky perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-built and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family anchored to old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP have a peek here in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.