Age-old Terror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across major streaming services

An chilling otherworldly horror tale from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten fear when outsiders become subjects in a fiendish struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of living through and primordial malevolence that will transform horror this October. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick film follows five young adults who find themselves stranded in a far-off hideaway under the hostile will of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a legendary biblical force. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a big screen ride that weaves together raw fear with ancestral stories, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the spirits no longer appear from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This illustrates the haunting corner of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the emotions becomes a unyielding confrontation between moral forces.


In a abandoned landscape, five souls find themselves cornered under the possessive presence and haunting of a elusive entity. As the cast becomes submissive to oppose her command, left alone and stalked by forces beyond comprehension, they are confronted to encounter their worst nightmares while the time relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and relationships implode, forcing each individual to question their core and the notion of personal agency itself. The threat rise with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel primitive panic, an presence older than civilization itself, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and questioning a force that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra needed manifesting something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the invasion happens, and that evolution is eerie because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure watchers no matter where they are can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, presenting the nightmare to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this visceral ride through nightmares. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For teasers, filmmaker commentary, and updates from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup braids together primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, paired with IP aftershocks

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by primordial scripture as well as series comebacks set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated as well as calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles with established lines, in tandem subscription platforms load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is riding the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided 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.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite 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. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. 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.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots 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.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going 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. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear slate: entries, Originals, in tandem with A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle crams from the jump with a January logjam, following that extends through peak season, and deep into the festive period, fusing marquee clout, new concepts, and smart offsets. Studios and platforms are focusing on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that turn these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can break out when it lands and still limit the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that lean-budget shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a reinvigorated attention on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Executives say the horror lane now works like a utility player on the slate. Horror can debut on almost any weekend, yield a clear pitch for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with audiences that lean in on preview nights and continue through the week two if the offering works. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects comfort in that playbook. The year launches with a heavy January window, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The gridline also shows the greater integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and broaden at the proper time.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just rolling another continuation. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that signals a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are championing practical craft, physical gags and grounded locations. That blend produces the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate pushes that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a legacy handover and a return-to-roots relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a roots-evoking strategy without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever shapes trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that grows into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to echo eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are framed as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, practical-effects forward mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Look for a hard-R summer horror charge that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

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 sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, locking in horror entries near their drops and eventizing go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering 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 proposition is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional cinema play for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not block a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is busy. 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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

End of summer through fall leans IP. 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 shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor 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 extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 threads the dread through a child’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. 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 surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream this contact form runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, 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 grain, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.