Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, streaming October 2025 across major platforms

One hair-raising occult suspense story from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an ancient evil when strangers become pawns in a satanic ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of endurance and old world terror that will remodel the fear genre this ghoul season. Visualized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and shadowy suspense flick follows five strangers who regain consciousness stuck in a isolated cabin under the malignant influence of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a timeless biblical force. Be prepared to be drawn in by a big screen experience that melds primitive horror with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the dark entities no longer develop outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This suggests the haunting side of the cast. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the suspense becomes a constant face-off between moral forces.


In a isolated terrain, five figures find themselves caught under the sinister effect and overtake of a unidentified female presence. As the characters becomes helpless to evade her power, severed and stalked by forces ungraspable, they are obligated to encounter their darkest emotions while the seconds brutally edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety grows and alliances shatter, demanding each member to rethink their true nature and the idea of volition itself. The intensity intensify with every beat, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into core terror, an darkness rooted in antiquity, working through inner turmoil, and confronting a force that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing customers everywhere can enjoy this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this unforgettable descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these unholy truths about the psyche.


For film updates, set experiences, and insider scoops from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup interlaces primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, plus series shake-ups

Moving from life-or-death fear drawn from scriptural legend all the way to installment follow-ups and incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered and intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, as digital services saturate the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with archetypal fear. On another front, indie storytellers is propelled by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes 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.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 spook lineup: returning titles, original films, alongside A Crowded Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The incoming horror season lines up right away with a January bottleneck, then rolls through summer corridors, and deep into the festive period, weaving brand equity, inventive spins, and well-timed release strategy. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that pivot the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it clicks and still hedge the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget chillers can dominate social chatter, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a refocused emphasis on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the space now behaves like a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, generate a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the second frame if the title delivers. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores assurance in that engine. The calendar gets underway with a thick January window, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while leaving room for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across shared universes and veteran brands. The players are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new tone or a star attachment that links a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating hands-on technique, practical effects and concrete locations. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two marquee entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected driven by classic imagery, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature design, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on minute detail and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed 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 clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror 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 supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play 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 run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 household haunting tale that toys with the terror of a child’s tricky interpretations. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title haunting thriller.

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 satirical comeback that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The More about the author 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, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.