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

One unnerving supernatural suspense story from dramatist / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric curse when drifters become pawns in a devilish contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of living through and old world terror that will resculpt horror this ghoul season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic story follows five people who arise locked in a hidden shelter under the menacing grip of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a time-worn ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a theatrical venture that intertwines deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the presences no longer originate outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the grimmest version of every character. The result is a emotionally raw moral showdown where the conflict becomes a intense confrontation between virtue and vice.


In a isolated backcountry, five figures find themselves sealed under the evil dominion and infestation of a uncanny person. As the protagonists becomes submissive to escape her power, marooned and preyed upon by spirits mind-shattering, they are cornered to face their raw vulnerabilities while the clock unforgivingly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and associations disintegrate, coercing each character to contemplate their personhood and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The threat surge with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into elemental fright, an force before modern man, channeling itself through human fragility, and challenging a force that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is ignorant until the invasion happens, and that conversion is shocking because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that customers from coast to coast can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Experience this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to survive these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For previews, production news, and announcements directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s tipping point: 2025 stateside slate fuses old-world possession, art-house nightmares, plus IP aftershocks

From life-or-death fear steeped in near-Eastern lore and stretching into IP renewals paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated and carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, in parallel SVOD players flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside ancestral chills. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner sets the tone with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, 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 property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess 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 serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

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

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The oncoming genre year to come: returning titles, non-franchise titles, paired with A Crowded Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The current genre calendar loads from the jump with a January bottleneck, thereafter carries through the warm months, and deep into the holidays, fusing series momentum, creative pitches, and shrewd calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that elevate horror entries into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the bankable counterweight in distribution calendars, a pillar that can break out when it catches and still insulate the risk when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that disciplined-budget entries can command the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is an opening for many shades, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with strategic blocks, a spread of established brands and new pitches, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and digital services.

Marketers add the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, supply a easy sell for trailers and shorts, and overperform with moviegoers that respond on preview nights and sustain through the next pass if the entry pays off. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores certainty in that engine. The slate opens with a loaded January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a autumn push that carries into late October and beyond. The layout also reflects the deeper integration of boutique distributors and SVOD players that can platform a title, fuel WOM, and widen at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just releasing another next film. They are shaping as lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a tonal shift or a talent selection that bridges a new entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination hands 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a legacy-leaning bent without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run anchored in heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an AI companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are presented as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to command 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has established that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel high-value on a lean spend. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror shock that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a clean-slate approach 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 mission to serve both longtime followers and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that maximizes both week-one demand and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and curated rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand extensions. 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 brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, refined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, 2026 leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to thread films through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind this slate suggest a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that centers an original my review here star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy restores 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 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s algorithmic partner turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that twists the terror of a child’s mercurial perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: in the can. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on current genre trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family bound to old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 dark-horse 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 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, 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 visual texture, soundscape, and image-making 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.