Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

An hair-raising ghostly terror film from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an ancient entity when guests become proxies in a cursed contest. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of survival and ancient evil that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric film follows five unacquainted souls who come to confined in a remote structure under the malevolent rule of Kyra, a central character claimed by a legendary religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture ride that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the beings no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the deepest dimension of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the plotline becomes a perpetual clash between moral forces.


In a haunting landscape, five friends find themselves contained under the ominous influence and inhabitation of a unknown apparition. As the victims becomes paralyzed to evade her grasp, stranded and pursued by forces unfathomable, they are compelled to endure their darkest emotions while the time mercilessly ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and associations disintegrate, forcing each participant to rethink their character and the idea of independent thought itself. The intensity intensify with every beat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines otherworldly panic with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to channel ancestral fear, an entity born of forgotten ages, manipulating human fragility, and questioning a presence that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the invasion happens, and that change is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences no matter where they are can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has racked up over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Make sure to see this life-altering spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these nightmarish insights about our species.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and social posts from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup blends myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, plus legacy-brand quakes

Moving from life-or-death fear saturated with ancient scripture and including installment follow-ups together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex in tandem with deliberate year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, while OTT services load up the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, 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 starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, 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. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: 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 With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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.

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

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is 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 reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new fright release year: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming horror season builds from the jump with a January bottleneck, subsequently rolls through peak season, and carrying into the December corridor, mixing marquee clout, original angles, and smart counter-scheduling. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that position these releases into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror marketplace has become the dependable option in studio slates, a genre that can scale when it hits and still safeguard the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that modestly budgeted fright engines can own social chatter, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum pushed into 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is demand for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a slate that seems notably aligned across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a blend of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted strategy on cinema windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and streaming.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now behaves like a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can launch on numerous frames, deliver a clear pitch for creative and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with patrons that come out on advance nights and stay strong through the next pass if the picture fires. In the wake of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan exhibits belief in that dynamic. The calendar kicks off with a thick January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and past Halloween. The layout also highlights the continuing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and grow at the precise moment.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just producing another installment. They are working to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a re-angled tone or a star attachment that anchors a new installment to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are embracing real-world builds, physical gags and specific settings. That pairing gives 2026 a smart balance of known notes and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a fan-service aware bent without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by have a peek here franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that evolves into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay odd public stunts and short reels that threads longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions 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 public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are branded as marquee events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is marketing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature work, elements that can increase premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by rigorous craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that maximizes both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the downstream. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using curated hubs, fright rows, and editorial rows to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival buys, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a one-two of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. 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 indicated a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. 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 credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans this website on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the method. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind this slate forecast a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which play well in fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that refracts terror through a youth’s uneven point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 ignites, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed 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 placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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 heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and cinematography 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.