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

A chilling paranormal thriller from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an long-buried fear when unfamiliar people become tools in a hellish maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of struggle and primeval wickedness that will remodel the fear genre this October. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy fearfest follows five strangers who regain consciousness ensnared in a isolated house under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a central character dominated by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Prepare to be shaken by a audio-visual journey that harmonizes raw fear with ancestral stories, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the beings no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the deepest corner of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a unforgiving conflict between good and evil.


In a abandoned outland, five characters find themselves stuck under the ghastly influence and spiritual invasion of a shadowy person. As the cast becomes powerless to escape her will, disconnected and hunted by entities indescribable, they are obligated to wrestle with their deepest fears while the final hour without pity moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and bonds disintegrate, coercing each figure to contemplate their being and the nature of liberty itself. The threat intensify with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into primitive panic, an curse that predates humanity, influencing emotional fractures, and navigating a curse that questions who we are when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that change is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering streamers globally can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling descent into hell. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these fearful discoveries about our species.


For sneak peeks, special features, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the official website.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Across endurance-driven terror suffused with near-Eastern lore all the way to series comebacks in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified along with carefully orchestrated year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios bookend the months with known properties, in parallel subscription platforms load up the fall with new voices set against mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is carried on the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated 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 sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 a smart play. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

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

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 must claw for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new 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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 genre calendar year ahead: Sequels, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The new scare year crowds from the jump with a January pile-up, after that stretches through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, fusing franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has turned into the predictable option in studio calendars, a category that can surge when it clicks and still hedge the drawdown when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize audience talk, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is a lane for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a run that shows rare alignment across companies, with obvious clusters, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a reinvigorated eye on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a versatile piece on the rollout map. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, generate a sharp concept for spots and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with crowds that line up on early shows and stick through the next weekend if the feature lands. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping telegraphs comfort in that dynamic. The year starts with a front-loaded January band, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The grid also reflects the deeper integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is legacy care across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. The players are not just turning out another return. They are moving to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that bridges a latest entry to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are leaning into material texture, special makeup and distinct locales. That mix provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket pushes that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a relay and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and snackable content that hybridizes affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are treated as director events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward strategy can feel big on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP have a peek at this web-site moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a reset 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 charge to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to go wider. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a dual release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind the year’s horror suggest a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

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

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 heads 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: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 severe boss push to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 family-home haunting piece that interrogates the chill of a child’s inconsistent impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. 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 search for sleepers 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, 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 tactility, sound, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.