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

A blood-curdling occult thriller from author / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial terror when unrelated individuals become conduits in a hellish game. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of living through and archaic horror that will remodel genre cinema this spooky time. Visualized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric cinema piece follows five lost souls who snap to stranded in a isolated structure under the hostile manipulation of Kyra, a female presence controlled by a timeless holy text monster. Arm yourself to be captivated by a narrative ride that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with folklore, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the monsters no longer form from beyond, but rather from deep inside. This marks the deepest element of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the story becomes a unforgiving clash between light and darkness.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the possessive grip and control of a elusive apparition. As the team becomes defenseless to evade her dominion, isolated and preyed upon by presences unfathomable, they are made to battle their deepest fears while the seconds mercilessly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension mounts and connections collapse, driving each participant to rethink their identity and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The pressure intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that marries occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dive into primal fear, an curse born of forgotten ages, manifesting in fragile psyche, and examining a will that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users everywhere can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this visceral spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus stateside slate interlaces legend-infused possession, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare drawn from primordial scripture and stretching into canon extensions plus incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned as well as tactically planned year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, at the same time platform operators pack the fall with fresh voices as well as archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. 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 opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more 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. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching terror year to come: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, And A jammed Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The current terror cycle clusters in short order with a January cluster, and then carries through June and July, and straight through the year-end corridor, braiding name recognition, fresh ideas, and shrewd calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are embracing tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that convert genre titles into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has turned into the surest lever in annual schedules, a lane that can spike when it performs and still safeguard the losses when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured leaders that cost-conscious shockers can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is room for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a harmony of household franchises and novel angles, and a re-energized strategy on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and streaming.

Executives say the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a sharp concept for ad units and vertical videos, and exceed norms with viewers that turn out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the second frame if the feature hits. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits conviction in that engine. The calendar kicks off with a front-loaded January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a fall cadence that carries into the fright window and beyond. The grid also spotlights the ongoing integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and established properties. The studios are not just making another next film. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that anchors a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into hands-on technique, practical gags and concrete locations. That mix hands the 2026 slate a vital pairing of familiarity and invention, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a memory-charged bent without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. Anticipate a campaign leaning on iconic art, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that becomes a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are sold as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to take 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that enhances both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using editorial spots, fright rows, and featured rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival grabs, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be critical 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+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has helped for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, 2026 bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which align with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground precise 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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 stiff, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. 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.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. 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 mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur great post to read mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that refracts terror through a little one’s uneven subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family bound to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a buffet, 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 gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.