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

One bone-chilling metaphysical nightmare movie from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old curse when newcomers become tools in a dark experiment. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of continuance and old world terror that will redefine scare flicks this fall. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five lost souls who emerge trapped in a hidden shelter under the hostile control of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be drawn in by a theatrical spectacle that integrates visceral dread with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a enduring foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the entities no longer originate from a different plane, but rather from their core. This mirrors the shadowy part of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the plotline becomes a constant battle between right and wrong.


In a remote wild, five young people find themselves isolated under the malicious control and haunting of a mysterious person. As the ensemble becomes helpless to escape her rule, marooned and chased by terrors unimaginable, they are compelled to deal with their greatest panics while the countdown harrowingly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and bonds implode, coercing each participant to doubt their character and the structure of conscious will itself. The cost mount with every minute, delivering a terror ride that intertwines paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken elemental fright, an threat that predates humanity, working through psychological breaks, and highlighting a power that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households everywhere can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has gathered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these dark realities about human nature.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle stateside slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, alongside brand-name tremors

Ranging from last-stand terror drawn from old testament echoes and stretching into canon extensions alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners are anchoring the year using marquee IP, as platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs together with ancestral chills. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is fueled by the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

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

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative 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 sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller release year: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A jammed Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The upcoming horror year builds immediately with a January traffic jam, and then carries through summer, and straight through the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that convert these releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has turned into the surest swing in distribution calendars, a genre that can expand when it catches and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to executives that efficiently budgeted fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a roster that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of brand names and new pitches, and a reinvigorated commitment on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can debut on most weekends, offer a clean hook for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with moviegoers that respond on Thursday nights and keep coming through the second frame if the picture lands. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 layout shows certainty in that logic. The slate starts with a busy January window, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also reflects the tightening integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and legacy IP. The companies are not just producing another entry. They are shaping as lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a refreshed voice or a lead change that bridges a next film to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That combination gives the 2026 slate a vital pairing of home base and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance announces a nostalgia-forward treatment without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run centered on franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that escalates into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as 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 makes room for a final title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, on-set effects led strategy can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that pushes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both debut momentum and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with global originals and small theatrical windows when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using editorial spots, horror hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about in-house releases and festival buys, dating horror entries toward the drop and framing as events premieres with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries supply the 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns announce the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight check my blog in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes 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 thick, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that plays with the terror of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan snared by lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. 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 language and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 use those gaps. 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, acoustics, and imagery 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.