Age-old Horror Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One eerie otherworldly fright fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic horror when drifters become proxies in a devilish conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of living through and old world terror that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick motion picture follows five lost souls who are stirred stuck in a far-off shelter under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a possessed female controlled by a ancient sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be shaken by a immersive event that melds raw fear with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a mainstay theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the malevolences no longer emerge from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This embodies the most primal facet of the protagonists. The result is a relentless moral showdown where the events becomes a soul-crushing fight between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving forest, five adults find themselves caught under the possessive rule and domination of a enigmatic apparition. As the youths becomes incapable to resist her curse, abandoned and followed by spirits beyond reason, they are driven to acknowledge their deepest fears while the final hour unforgivingly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety grows and relationships dissolve, driving each cast member to contemplate their values and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The cost accelerate with every tick, delivering a horror experience that intertwines demonic fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore instinctual horror, an entity before modern man, operating within fragile psyche, and testing a spirit that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something unfamiliar to reason. She is in denial until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is deeply unsettling because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers worldwide can enjoy this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this cinematic exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these haunting secrets about human nature.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate integrates ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, and Franchise Rumbles

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified along with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, at the same time streaming platforms saturate the fall with unboxed visions as well as scriptural shivers. On another front, the artisan tier is propelled by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written 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 nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. 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 Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong 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.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching terror cycle: returning titles, original films, as well as A busy Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The new genre slate crams in short order with a January bottleneck, and then stretches through summer, and continuing into the festive period, braiding franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Studios and streamers are embracing mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the sturdy move in annual schedules, a lane that can break out when it hits and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the discourse, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays confirmed there is an opening for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to original one-offs that export nicely. The end result for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across players, with defined corridors, a combination of known properties and first-time concepts, and a refocused strategy on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and streaming.

Schedulers say the category now slots in as a swing piece on the programming map. The genre can premiere on nearly any frame, deliver a grabby hook for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with crowds that line up on previews Thursday and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the feature pays off. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores comfort in that logic. The calendar begins with a heavy January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a fall cadence that pushes into late October and into November. The program also reflects the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and roll out at the timely point.

An added macro current is franchise tending across shared IP webs and heritage properties. The players are not just rolling another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting choice that threads a next film to a initial period. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That interplay delivers 2026 a healthy mix of home base and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that grows into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that fuses attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His projects are set up as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, physical-effects centered strategy can feel premium on a moderate cost. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a steady supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a reset 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 sharper mandate to serve both core fans and novices. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas this content Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and trial spikes in the back half. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and curated rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about own-slate titles and festival snaps, slotting horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to open out. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not block a parallel release from winning when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind this year’s genre signal a continued move toward real, location-led 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 finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win 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 rotated off PLF.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss push to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 closed-door haunting scenario that routes the horror through a youth’s unreliable subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family caught in older hauntings. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, 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 efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where value-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, 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 visual texture, aural design, 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.