Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This frightening mystic scare-fest from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a devilish experiment. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish tale of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will reshape genre cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy story follows five teens who emerge isolated in a unreachable cottage under the oppressive rule of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a antiquated biblical demon. Steel yourself to be hooked by a filmic display that intertwines soul-chilling terror with folklore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the forces no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most terrifying version of every character. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the events becomes a merciless face-off between purity and corruption.


In a remote outland, five souls find themselves confined under the ominous control and infestation of a shadowy apparition. As the youths becomes unresisting to reject her rule, left alone and targeted by unknowns beyond reason, they are forced to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the time unceasingly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and friendships break, prompting each soul to challenge their character and the idea of self-determination itself. The tension surge with every minute, delivering a frightening tale that marries unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore ancestral fear, an darkness born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through our fears, and dealing with a curse that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users worldwide can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this unforgettable voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these unholy truths about mankind.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate blends primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, paired with tentpole growls

Beginning with last-stand terror rooted in near-Eastern lore and onward to legacy revivals alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured plus intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, in parallel subscription platforms prime the fall with debut heat plus old-world menace. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is catching the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: 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 have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare release year: follow-ups, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar engineered for frights

Dek: The new terror cycle builds up front with a January glut, subsequently unfolds through summer corridors, and deep into the holiday frame, weaving brand heft, creative pitches, and well-timed counterplay. Studios with streamers are embracing right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that transform horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has proven to be the surest swing in studio calendars, a vertical that can spike when it resonates and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 showed decision-makers that modestly budgeted fright engines can command social chatter, the following year sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and quiet over-performers. The carry translated to the 2025 frame, where returns and critical darlings made clear there is a market for several lanes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that travel well. The result for 2026 is a programming that appears tightly organized across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of established brands and new pitches, and a renewed strategy on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium rental and digital services.

Insiders argue the horror lane now behaves like a utility player on the slate. Horror can arrive on open real estate, offer a simple premise for teasers and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that turn out on opening previews and stick through the subsequent weekend if the offering satisfies. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern telegraphs conviction in that engine. The slate starts with a busy January schedule, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a fall corridor that pushes into All Hallows period and into early November. The layout also spotlights the greater integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. Distribution groups are not just mounting another sequel. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that conveys a fresh attitude or a star attachment that binds a latest entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are favoring hands-on technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a heritage-honoring mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to renew uncanny live moments and snackable content that interlaces affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are treated as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is describing as a fresh restart 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 directive to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and practical creature work, elements that can lift format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that fortifies both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video pairs library titles with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival wins, confirming horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in great post to read favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The practical approach is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. 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 in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre forecast a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which match well with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 brooding contrast amid heavier IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can thrive 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 shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss push to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


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 terror of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined spirit-world suspense.

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 manias. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family snared by past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. 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 time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and image-making 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.