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

An hair-raising metaphysical suspense story from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried fear when guests become vehicles in a diabolical ritual. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of perseverance and mythic evil that will reimagine scare flicks this spooky time. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie story follows five individuals who awaken sealed in a cut-off shack under the hostile influence of Kyra, a cursed figure haunted by a ancient ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be seized by a big screen event that integrates visceral dread with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the fiends no longer form from external sources, but rather deep within. This mirrors the most hidden facet of these individuals. The result is a intense mind game where the story becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a barren wilderness, five youths find themselves confined under the malicious sway and overtake of a secretive female presence. As the group becomes submissive to deny her power, stranded and targeted by evils unfathomable, they are driven to face their darkest emotions while the clock relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and alliances collapse, pressuring each character to question their core and the idea of liberty itself. The consequences climb with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that merges unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore instinctual horror, an presence from prehistory, manipulating soul-level flaws, and challenging a force that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the entity awakens, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure subscribers from coast to coast can watch this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to survive these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For director insights, special features, and news directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts interlaces myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Across life-or-death fear infused with legendary theology through to installment follow-ups and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most dimensioned plus strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, even as platform operators saturate the fall with debut heat set against scriptural shivers. At the same time, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, 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. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: 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. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

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

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright cycle: installments, fresh concepts, in tandem with A packed Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The upcoming scare year packs in short order with a January logjam, before it unfolds through peak season, and pushing into the December corridor, balancing series momentum, creative pitches, and tactical counterplay. The major players are betting on lean spends, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that turn the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has turned into the bankable option in release strategies, a category that can scale when it connects and still insulate the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 re-taught top brass that responsibly budgeted pictures can shape the discourse, 2024 carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The trend fed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and elevated films highlighted there is demand for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The result for the 2026 slate is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the field, with strategic blocks, a pairing of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on virtually any date, supply a tight logline for creative and vertical videos, and punch above weight with crowds that lean in on Thursday nights and return through the subsequent weekend if the movie works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects conviction in that equation. The calendar begins with a front-loaded January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into spooky season and into November. The schedule also features the expanded integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and expand at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just rolling another return. They are looking to package lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that flags a tonal shift or a casting move that threads a next film to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, real effects and vivid settings. That alloy affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of known notes and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two marquee entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a memory-charged mode without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run anchored in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, tragic, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an digital partner that shifts into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to reprise odd public stunts and short-form creative that mixes love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are branded as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led strategy can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Expect a red-band summer horror rush that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to great post to read build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that enhances both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video balances licensed films with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to buy select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The operating solution is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar cadence

January is jammed. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month caps 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 serious, but the menu of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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 challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. 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 sorrowing man’s virtual companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance flips and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that frames the panic through a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 exploit those windows. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized 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 dimensionality, soundscape, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.