Age-old Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

One spine-tingling occult fright fest from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient force when unrelated individuals become conduits in a fiendish conflict. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of continuance and old world terror that will reshape terror storytelling this Halloween season. Produced by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and cinematic screenplay follows five figures who suddenly rise sealed in a remote structure under the malignant rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl occupied by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Steel yourself to be gripped by a visual spectacle that melds primitive horror with ancestral stories, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the presences no longer form from beyond, but rather inside them. This represents the haunting facet of these individuals. The result is a enthralling mind game where the tension becomes a unyielding fight between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken woodland, five teens find themselves caught under the dark effect and possession of a obscure woman. As the characters becomes incapacitated to withstand her will, marooned and hunted by unknowns ungraspable, they are driven to deal with their core terrors while the doomsday meter relentlessly draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and ties break, coercing each survivor to question their identity and the idea of conscious will itself. The risk climb with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract instinctual horror, an entity rooted in antiquity, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and questioning a presence that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing horror lovers anywhere can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this visceral exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these chilling revelations about the soul.


For film updates, production insights, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate fuses primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, together with Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales infused with legendary theology and onward to installment follow-ups and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured plus precision-timed year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors bookend the months with known properties, concurrently premium streamers load up the fall with new perspectives in concert with mythic dread. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is surfing the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm 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. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The 2026 terror calendar year ahead: brand plays, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The arriving horror cycle crowds in short order with a January traffic jam, thereafter spreads through the summer months, and straight through the holiday stretch, fusing legacy muscle, creative pitches, and data-minded counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are embracing smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that pivot these pictures into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has established itself as the bankable lever in release strategies, a space that can scale when it clicks and still insulate the liability when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught executives that lean-budget horror vehicles can shape cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The energy pushed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers confirmed there is an opening for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with obvious clusters, a mix of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a renewed strategy on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now functions as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can bow on open real estate, generate a clear pitch for promo reels and shorts, and over-index with patrons that respond on opening previews and keep coming through the next pass if the movie connects. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout signals faith in that setup. The year commences with a weighty January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that flows toward late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also shows the ongoing integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and move wide at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a new tone or a talent selection that links a upcoming film to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a throwback-friendly strategy without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character-first teases, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to dominate 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that maximizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate 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 tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set outline the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not preclude a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which fit with convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

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 big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s digital partner turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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

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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that manipulates the dread of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 sleeper overperformer 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 reawakens 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, 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 Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry get redirected here join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.