Primordial Horror Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across leading streamers

One chilling ghostly thriller from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic evil when unrelated individuals become subjects in a demonic trial. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of overcoming and old world terror that will reimagine terror storytelling this season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and eerie cinema piece follows five strangers who find themselves isolated in a cut-off shelter under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a narrative venture that integrates visceral dread with legendary tales, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a recurring trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the fiends no longer emerge externally, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most terrifying facet of the players. The result is a intense mental war where the events becomes a perpetual conflict between virtue and vice.


In a desolate forest, five teens find themselves marooned under the dark dominion and curse of a uncanny figure. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to fight her manipulation, stranded and chased by spirits inconceivable, they are compelled to face their inner demons while the time without pause runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and associations splinter, forcing each member to examine their existence and the foundation of volition itself. The risk intensify with every second, delivering a terror ride that blends demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to channel deep fear, an presence older than civilization itself, manipulating our weaknesses, and exposing a force that threatens selfhood when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing viewers globally can experience this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping fall into madness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to acknowledge these terrifying truths about mankind.


For director insights, production news, and news from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. rollouts fuses Mythic Possession, underground frights, set against returning-series thunder

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from old testament echoes all the way to IP renewals and surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the richest paired with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors set cornerstones using marquee IP, as SVOD players front-load the fall with unboxed visions paired with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is drafting behind the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed 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 the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting 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.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. 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 ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, thereafter extends through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, original angles, and tactical counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the steady lever in studio slates, a genre that can grow when it resonates and still mitigate the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured executives that disciplined-budget pictures can drive pop culture, the following year held pace with director-led heat and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is capacity for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that perform internationally. The result for the 2026 slate is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with purposeful groupings, a spread of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a re-energized focus on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now slots in as a swing piece on the programming map. The genre can kick off on almost any weekend, offer a tight logline for marketing and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that arrive on opening previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the offering satisfies. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates trust in that engine. The year opens with a loaded January band, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn push that extends to the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The gridline also reflects the expanded integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. Major shops are not just mounting another sequel. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that suggests a refreshed voice or a star attachment that binds a latest entry to a vintage era. At the same time, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two headline projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a nostalgia-forward angle without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by brand visuals, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror eerie street stunts and micro spots that hybridizes affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele projects are sold as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to saturate 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, physical-effects centered execution can feel deluxe on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in historical precision and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that optimizes both week-one demand and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video pairs library titles with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival additions, securing horror entries near launch and eventizing go-lives with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led this content packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is anchored enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date move from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, enables marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre signal a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in Source the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that plays with the fear of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in the can. 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 involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household bound to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-specific language and bone-deep 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, 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 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.