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

One hair-raising occult terror film from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a demonic ordeal. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of continuance and age-old darkness that will reimagine horror this fall. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic screenplay follows five figures who emerge isolated in a off-grid house under the dark command of Kyra, a possessed female claimed by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be seized by a narrative display that fuses primitive horror with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the monsters no longer originate from beyond, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the deepest aspect of the protagonists. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a intense struggle between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving outland, five souls find themselves isolated under the evil dominion and spiritual invasion of a secretive figure. As the characters becomes unable to deny her curse, severed and stalked by forces beyond reason, they are obligated to acknowledge their core terrors while the countdown ruthlessly moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease grows and teams break, forcing each member to examine their self and the foundation of free will itself. The intensity rise with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that marries mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover primitive panic, an evil beyond recorded history, influencing fragile psyche, and exposing a entity that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is clueless until the curse activates, and that flip is shocking because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing subscribers worldwide can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Experience this soul-jarring descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and news from the creators, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar Mixes legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Moving from grit-forward survival fare drawn from scriptural legend and extending to brand-name continuations plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex paired with deliberate year for the modern era.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios lay down anchors through proven series, simultaneously digital services saturate the fall with discovery plays paired with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the independent cohort is carried on the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in 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 reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely 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, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. 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, led by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

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. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare lineup: Sequels, standalone ideas, as well as A jammed Calendar engineered for frights

Dek: The fresh horror calendar packs up front with a January logjam, subsequently carries through peak season, and well into the holiday frame, fusing marquee clout, untold stories, and calculated release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that convert the slate’s entries into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the predictable counterweight in studio calendars, a pillar that can accelerate when it performs and still cushion the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to studio brass that disciplined-budget chillers can galvanize the discourse, the following year continued the surge with buzzy auteur projects and stealth successes. The tailwind extended into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles proved there is an opening for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that presents tight coordination across the major shops, with intentional bunching, a balance of known properties and first-time concepts, and a recommitted attention on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and streaming.

Schedulers say the space now acts as a utility player on the programming map. Horror can roll out on nearly any frame, supply a simple premise for creative and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that line up on early shows and return through the sophomore frame if the film hits. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs trust in that setup. The calendar starts with a thick January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a fall cadence that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The schedule also underscores the tightening integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and roll out at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is series management across shared universes and established properties. Big banners are not just releasing another sequel. They are setting up lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a new tone or a casting move that ties a next entry to a heyday. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are celebrating on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That alloy yields 2026 a confident blend of recognition and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a heritage-honoring treatment without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run built on heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an digital partner that grows into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to recreate eerie street stunts and snackable content that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on historical precision and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video interleaves library titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor 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 haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with crossover potential. 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 likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception allows. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays deliver oxygen. 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a day-date try from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which work nicely for fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop 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 finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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: Produced consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 prickly boss push to survive on a desolate island as the control balance tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting chiller that toys with the terror of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned 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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household anchored to older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That click site allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 detail, sonics, and picture 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.