Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, streaming October 2025 across top digital platforms

One terrifying otherworldly fear-driven tale from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an long-buried dread when foreigners become vehicles in a hellish experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of struggle and old world terror that will transform the horror genre this fall. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and emotionally thick motion picture follows five unacquainted souls who are stirred ensnared in a unreachable shack under the malevolent will of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a ancient scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a immersive spectacle that melds deep-seated panic with folklore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reimagined when the beings no longer descend from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the darkest version of each of them. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the intensity becomes a unforgiving confrontation between right and wrong.


In a abandoned backcountry, five characters find themselves marooned under the malevolent sway and infestation of a unidentified apparition. As the team becomes helpless to escape her command, disconnected and stalked by evils unimaginable, they are made to face their inner horrors while the clock ruthlessly counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and partnerships dissolve, forcing each protagonist to reflect on their essence and the idea of conscious will itself. The intensity grow with every tick, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dig into ancestral fear, an evil that predates humanity, embedding itself in mental cracks, and challenging a will that strips down our being when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the demon emerges, and that evolution is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences from coast to coast can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first trailer, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these dark realities about the psyche.


For director insights, making-of footage, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, plus IP aftershocks

Beginning with life-or-death fear drawn from legendary theology as well as brand-name continuations paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most complex together with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, in parallel digital services prime the fall with unboxed visions as well as legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, 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 surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and 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 is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek The emerging scare slate crams in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently extends through the mid-year, and straight through the festive period, marrying franchise firepower, creative pitches, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that shape the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the consistent tool in release plans, a genre that can grow when it clicks and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted pictures can command the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays confirmed there is an opening for different modes, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a run that seems notably aligned across the field, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of marquee IP and novel angles, and a sharpened priority on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and digital services.

Executives say the space now functions as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, furnish a easy sell for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that line up on opening previews and sustain through the week two if the movie works. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs conviction in that equation. The year rolls out with a busy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and beyond. The map also highlights the expanded integration of indie arms and streamers that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and expand at the proper time.

A companion trend is series management across unified worlds and classic IP. The companies are not just releasing another return. They are seeking to position continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that threads a latest entry to a vintage era. At the very same time, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are doubling down on material texture, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That fusion delivers 2026 a smart balance of brand comfort and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two headline entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve horror movies Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a memory-charged treatment without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run anchored in heritage visuals, character previews, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to revisit strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that fuses love and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are treated as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a in-your-face, practical-first aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror rush that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can drive premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by historical precision and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that expands both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse Source is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to stir click site evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind this year’s genre forecast a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that foregrounds mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which work nicely for fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner evolves into something dangerously intimate. 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that manipulates the horror of a child’s tricky point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family bound to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound field, and visuals 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, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.