Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This chilling unearthly fear-driven tale from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old entity when drifters become tools in a dark ritual. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of staying alive and mythic evil that will reshape genre cinema this autumn. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy cinema piece follows five lost souls who awaken stuck in a remote house under the malevolent control of Kyra, a troubled woman possessed by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a audio-visual event that melds gut-punch terror with timeless legends, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is subverted when the spirits no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This represents the grimmest part of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the emotions becomes a constant fight between virtue and vice.


In a bleak backcountry, five characters find themselves isolated under the unholy grip and infestation of a mysterious woman. As the victims becomes paralyzed to evade her rule, isolated and targeted by beings ungraspable, they are compelled to battle their greatest panics while the final hour relentlessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear rises and relationships crack, prompting each participant to question their values and the structure of autonomy itself. The intensity escalate with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that connects unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover basic terror, an force that predates humanity, emerging via fragile psyche, and challenging a curse that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving audiences across the world can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this life-altering fall into madness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these unholy truths about the soul.


For teasers, special features, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 stateside slate melds biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, alongside brand-name tremors

Ranging from endurance-driven terror suffused with near-Eastern lore as well as installment follow-ups plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned combined with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, concurrently platform operators front-load the fall with debut heat together with legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is drafting behind the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

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

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare year to come: Sequels, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar tailored for chills

Dek: The new terror cycle packs up front with a January bottleneck, from there spreads through the warm months, and running into the festive period, braiding marquee clout, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that elevate these offerings into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has solidified as the bankable option in programming grids, a pillar that can surge when it breaks through and still buffer the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 reminded buyers that modestly budgeted genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects made clear there is appetite for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with mapped-out bands, a mix of familiar brands and fresh ideas, and a re-energized attention on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the category now slots in as a flex slot on the release plan. Horror can bow on most weekends, furnish a sharp concept for spots and social clips, and over-index with demo groups that respond on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the second frame if the picture works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 plan reflects faith in that approach. The year begins with a weighty January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a October build that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also illustrates the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across shared universes and storied titles. Major shops are not just producing another entry. They are aiming to frame lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a logo package that suggests a reframed mood or a cast configuration that links a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are doubling down on material texture, practical effects and concrete locations. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach points to a memory-charged mode without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave stacked with iconic art, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short reels that interweaves companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are presented as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to fill 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven mix can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is describing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around environmental design, and creature work, elements that can stoke large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform tactics for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that enhances both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and eventizing launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his this page adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Be ready 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 as a pair, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-flavored turn from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that observed windows did not prevent a day-date try from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they change perspective and expand the canvas. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to link the films through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre hint at a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates grain and menace rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

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 gloomy counterbalance amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads 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: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that frames the panic through a minor’s uneven point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. 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: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. 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 historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends click to read more with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, 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, sound, and camera work 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, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.