Age-old Horror Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling chiller, arriving October 2025 across leading streamers

A hair-raising otherworldly terror film from narrative craftsman / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old nightmare when newcomers become conduits in a diabolical struggle. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of overcoming and age-old darkness that will alter terror storytelling this October. Visualized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric cinema piece follows five unknowns who emerge confined in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the malignant rule of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a ancient holy text monster. Be prepared to be immersed by a filmic presentation that combines deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the entities no longer emerge from beyond, but rather from their psyche. This echoes the most hidden dimension of each of them. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a merciless push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a remote landscape, five teens find themselves trapped under the dark control and spiritual invasion of a unidentified female presence. As the ensemble becomes unable to deny her dominion, cut off and followed by powers unfathomable, they are forced to deal with their inner horrors while the hours without pause strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and teams splinter, prompting each soul to rethink their identity and the idea of liberty itself. The hazard magnify with every beat, delivering a paranormal ride that weaves together otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract basic terror, an malevolence that predates humanity, feeding on soul-level flaws, and dealing with a darkness that forces self-examination when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is ignorant until the invasion happens, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers across the world can witness this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this cinematic spiral into evil. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these ghostly lessons about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets domestic schedule interlaces ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, plus legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from grit-forward survival fare inspired by near-Eastern lore as well as installment follow-ups as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most textured as well as strategic year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with franchise anchors, while SVOD players crowd the fall with debut heat in concert with legend-coded dread. At the same time, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The approaching spook season: Sequels, new stories, paired with A loaded Calendar aimed at screams

Dek The incoming genre cycle stacks from the jump with a January crush, after that unfolds through summer, and carrying into the late-year period, combining marquee clout, original angles, and smart calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are relying on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that frame these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has shown itself to be the dependable option in studio slates, a lane that can surge when it lands and still protect the losses when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that disciplined-budget entries can lead audience talk, the following year kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The carry rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects proved there is a lane for several lanes, from continued chapters to original features that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across players, with strategic blocks, a spread of brand names and untested plays, and a sharpened eye on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a fill-in ace on the schedule. Horror can bow on virtually any date, yield a sharp concept for teasers and short-form placements, and lead with patrons that appear on advance nights and keep coming through the next pass if the movie pays off. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern signals assurance in that logic. The year opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just rolling another next film. They are working to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a new tone or a casting pivot that reconnects a new installment to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing practical craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and freshness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two spotlight moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push leaning on franchise iconography, character previews, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on eerie street stunts and brief clips that hybridizes intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are treated as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins 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 repeatedly shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy style can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror jolt that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach 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 focus to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the later phase. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, spooky hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival buys, dating horror entries near launch and elevating as drops go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline 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 proposition is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate 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 prime evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not deter a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which align with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons 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 serious, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to this page Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that filters its scares through a minor’s wavering POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. 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 returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll 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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. 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-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper chase 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 exploit 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and framing 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 shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.