Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming October 2025 across major streaming services

An bone-chilling paranormal horror tale from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval force when guests become puppets in a devilish struggle. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of resistance and archaic horror that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody fearfest follows five strangers who find themselves ensnared in a unreachable hideaway under the dark command of Kyra, a young woman possessed by a prehistoric ancient fiend. Be warned to be seized by a motion picture event that melds intense horror with folklore, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a well-established element in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is inverted when the dark entities no longer develop from external sources, but rather from within. This symbolizes the haunting side of every character. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the plotline becomes a constant struggle between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five friends find themselves confined under the sinister control and haunting of a unidentified person. As the characters becomes incapacitated to combat her rule, stranded and preyed upon by spirits indescribable, they are obligated to reckon with their inner horrors while the countdown unforgivingly pushes forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear intensifies and friendships dissolve, coercing each person to evaluate their self and the idea of volition itself. The pressure escalate with every beat, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to channel pure dread, an darkness rooted in antiquity, operating within fragile psyche, and questioning a presence that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that viewers from coast to coast can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original promo, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these fearful discoveries about our species.


For film updates, extra content, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate blends old-world possession, indie terrors, stacked beside franchise surges

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by scriptural legend as well as legacy revivals paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is lining up as the most textured and precision-timed year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors hold down the year with familiar IP, as streamers saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs together with ancient terrors. On another front, the art-house flank is catching the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. 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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 Horror calendar year ahead: next chapters, original films, and also A brimming Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The current genre slate stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there runs through June and July, and continuing into the holiday stretch, mixing series momentum, new voices, and savvy offsets. The major players are betting on mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position these films into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has established itself as the consistent swing in studio slates, a category that can scale when it connects and still protect the exposure when it misses. After the 2023 year signaled to strategy teams that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is appetite for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The aggregate for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with defined corridors, a combination of established brands and fresh ideas, and a recommitted eye on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a wildcard on the grid. Horror can roll out on most weekends, create a easy sell for marketing and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with viewers that arrive on previews Thursday and return through the second frame if the title works. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout underscores comfort in that logic. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall cadence that reaches into Halloween and into the next week. The program also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and roll out at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just turning out another follow-up. They are looking to package lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a new tone or a casting choice that binds a latest entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That mix provides 2026 a robust balance of assurance and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two headline bets 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 center, framing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a nostalgia-forward angle without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will build mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and short reels that fuses affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are branded as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to saturate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror charge that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both FOMO and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation swells.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. Be ready for 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 tandem, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation 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 extends 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, permits marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Creative tendencies and get redirected here craft

The creative meetings behind this slate forecast a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which match well with convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. 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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

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 confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that refracts terror through a kid’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on 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 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 stealth-hit search 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, aural design, and framing 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 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.