Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A terrifying ghostly scare-fest from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval nightmare when drifters become subjects in a diabolical maze. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of resistance and timeless dread that will alter terror storytelling this spooky time. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and eerie film follows five lost souls who come to stuck in a secluded wooden structure under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a tormented girl occupied by a legendary scriptural evil. Anticipate to be seized by a visual display that combines primitive horror with folklore, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a recurring theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the beings no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather internally. This illustrates the grimmest corner of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the conflict becomes a merciless contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five figures find themselves isolated under the malicious grip and possession of a secretive character. As the protagonists becomes incapable to combat her power, cut off and preyed upon by beings unimaginable, they are forced to stand before their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter brutally draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and ties fracture, pressuring each character to examine their being and the foundation of personal agency itself. The risk amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dive into primitive panic, an evil older than civilization itself, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a curse that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving households from coast to coast can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, presenting the nightmare to international horror buffs.


Witness this mind-warping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these ghostly lessons about our species.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate blends myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, and brand-name tremors

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in mythic scripture to franchise returns set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most complex together with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, simultaneously SVOD players saturate the fall with new voices alongside scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is fueled by the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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 the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed 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 is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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 lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, and also A hectic Calendar Built For chills

Dek The fresh genre calendar stacks from the jump with a January glut, subsequently spreads through the summer months, and continuing into the late-year period, fusing brand equity, new concepts, and strategic counterweight. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape the slate’s entries into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the dependable release in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it resonates and still buffer the risk when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted pictures can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and critical darlings confirmed there is appetite for several lanes, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a grid that shows rare alignment across players, with mapped-out bands, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a sharpened commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Executives say the genre now performs as a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can roll out on many corridors, offer a sharp concept for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with moviegoers that come out on Thursday nights and stick through the second weekend if the picture satisfies. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals trust in that setup. The slate opens with a thick January block, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a October build that flows toward the fright window and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and broaden at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across shared IP webs and established properties. The studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a reframed mood or a casting choice that anchors a next film to a heyday. At the same time, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are leaning into physical effects work, real effects and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a relay and a back-to-basics character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a heritage-honoring angle without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that becomes a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short reels that mixes intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are marketed as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects execution can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can boost premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that boosts both FOMO and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival grabs, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate forecast a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, 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 performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

From winter to holidays

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

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 take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s intelligent companion turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the hierarchy shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that frames the panic through a youth’s shifting POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 comic send-up that lampoons modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: underway. 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 period language and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 click site family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

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

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean 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 texture, aural design, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.