Age-old Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across major platforms

This eerie ghostly fear-driven tale from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten malevolence when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a satanic ordeal. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will alter genre cinema this cool-weather season. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic cinema piece follows five teens who come to isolated in a cut-off hideaway under the malevolent command of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a legendary holy text monster. Be warned to be shaken by a big screen adventure that blends visceral dread with arcane tradition, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a iconic tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the presences no longer originate from an outside force, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the haunting layer of the cast. The result is a enthralling mental war where the drama becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a remote terrain, five young people find themselves isolated under the sinister presence and overtake of a mysterious character. As the victims becomes incapable to combat her influence, left alone and preyed upon by creatures unimaginable, they are required to face their soulful dreads while the countdown unceasingly ticks toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety rises and relationships break, pushing each individual to question their values and the principle of free will itself. The threat climb with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that marries otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract instinctual horror, an presence born of forgotten ages, emerging via inner turmoil, and challenging a curse that challenges autonomy when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the haunting manifests, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that users anywhere can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its intro video, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these unholy truths about existence.


For featurettes, special features, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar integrates Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, alongside tentpole growls

Spanning life-or-death fear drawn from legendary theology to franchise returns set beside focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most variegated and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with familiar IP, simultaneously premium streamers stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed 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.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, 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 opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on 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
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is 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.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new scare cycle: follow-ups, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The incoming terror slate stacks at the outset with a January wave, and then runs through the mid-year, and deep into the year-end corridor, braiding marquee clout, creative pitches, and tactical calendar placement. Studios and platforms are committing to mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and buzz-forward plans that shape these offerings into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This category has turned into the predictable option in release plans, a genre that can lift when it connects and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year demonstrated to buyers that mid-range entries can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and word-of-mouth wins. The trend carried into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings proved there is space for different modes, from continued chapters to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with intentional bunching, a spread of established brands and new packages, and a re-energized priority on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now performs as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can launch on numerous frames, deliver a sharp concept for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with demo groups that respond on opening previews and maintain momentum through the week two if the entry fires. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping reflects faith in that equation. The year begins with a crowded January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a September to October window that pushes into the Halloween corridor and beyond. The calendar also spotlights the greater integration of specialty arms and digital platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across ongoing universes and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just producing another chapter. They are seeking to position lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that announces a tonal shift or a star attachment that binds a next film to a heyday. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and surprise, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two marquee bets that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance conveys a legacy-leaning campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with brand visuals, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an AI companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny live moments and micro spots that interlaces longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror hit that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and historical speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed content with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival grabs, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of precision releases and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane 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 angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror point to a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct 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 trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which favor fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring load in summer. great post to read Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 fear, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that filters its scares through a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-faithful speech and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 harvest those lanes. 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 tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate 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 earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, and visual design 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision 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, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.