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

An bone-chilling spectral suspense film from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried nightmare when newcomers become tools in a malevolent maze. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of survival and old world terror that will reconstruct horror this autumn. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic motion picture follows five people who arise ensnared in a isolated cabin under the ominous influence of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be captivated by a visual spectacle that melds instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the spirits no longer develop from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the deepest layer of the group. The result is a enthralling mental war where the intensity becomes a ongoing contest between innocence and sin.


In a remote outland, five characters find themselves caught under the sinister sway and grasp of a obscure person. As the survivors becomes incapable to fight her command, severed and tracked by unknowns ungraspable, they are obligated to encounter their deepest fears while the moments unceasingly counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and relationships break, pressuring each soul to doubt their core and the idea of conscious will itself. The threat accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract ancestral fear, an malevolence that predates humanity, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a power that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra called for internalizing something darker than pain. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers everywhere can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this life-altering exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this launch day to face these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and press updates via the production team, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror sea change: calendar year 2025 stateside slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, and brand-name tremors

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with scriptural legend as well as brand-name continuations paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the most textured as well as deliberate year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors set cornerstones using marquee IP, concurrently SVOD players load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as scriptural shivers. In parallel, indie storytellers is fueled by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, 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 sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: 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 Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. 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 opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek: The incoming horror calendar packs immediately with a January wave, subsequently spreads through summer corridors, and continuing into the late-year period, balancing name recognition, original angles, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and viral-minded pushes that transform genre titles into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has turned into the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a space that can spike when it breaks through and still mitigate the floor when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to buyers that disciplined-budget fright engines can lead cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is a lane for different modes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a revived focus on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now functions as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can arrive on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with fans that appear on advance nights and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the offering lands. Coming out of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan signals comfort in that dynamic. The calendar launches with a loaded January run, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a fall corridor that extends to spooky season and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across shared universes and veteran brands. The players are not just turning out another next film. They are seeking to position lineage with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a reframed mood or a talent selection that bridges a next entry to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the top original plays are embracing hands-on technique, real effects and vivid settings. That blend offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and surprise, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a classic-referencing approach without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave stacked with iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror eerie street stunts and quick hits that hybridizes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles 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 event moment closer to the debut look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to dominate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video combines acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival wins, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. 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 telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded 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 that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns outline the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and elevate scope. 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 this page time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to cross-link entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind this slate hint at a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month winds down 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 formidable, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May prepare summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 tough boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that refracts terror through a little one’s uneven subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven 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 satire sequel that needles in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of 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 track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 pattern and spread. January is a banquet, 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 gets gnarly, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.