Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

An terrifying ghostly scare-fest from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless evil when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a fiendish experiment. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and mythic evil that will revolutionize the horror genre this season. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy motion picture follows five figures who are stirred caught in a far-off structure under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Get ready to be seized by a screen-based ride that fuses raw fear with arcane tradition, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is twisted when the fiends no longer form outside their bodies, but rather deep within. This marks the haunting version of the group. The result is a riveting mind game where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between right and wrong.


In a desolate forest, five friends find themselves confined under the ghastly force and possession of a shadowy woman. As the protagonists becomes unable to reject her rule, abandoned and tracked by spirits impossible to understand, they are pushed to endure their darkest emotions while the hours unforgivingly strikes toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and teams break, requiring each figure to question their self and the notion of autonomy itself. The stakes intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes ghostly evil with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to uncover ancestral fear, an malevolence older than civilization itself, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a curse that dismantles free will when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant evoking something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users across the world can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, spreading the horror to lovers of terror across nations.


Do not miss this cinematic descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For bonus footage, extra content, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate braids together Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

From pressure-cooker survival tales rooted in near-Eastern lore and stretching into franchise returns together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most complex plus carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, in tandem streaming platforms stack the fall with unboxed visions set against old-world menace. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 genre release year: installments, filmmaker-first projects, and also A brimming Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The arriving horror season crams right away with a January wave, subsequently extends through the mid-year, and continuing into the year-end corridor, blending brand heft, creative pitches, and data-minded counterweight. Studios and streamers are leaning into smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has proven to be the sturdy play in programming grids, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still protect the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded executives that lean-budget scare machines can drive mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The run fed into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles highlighted there is room for many shades, from series extensions to original one-offs that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that appears tightly organized across the market, with defined corridors, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a refocused strategy on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and SVOD.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a schedule utility on the grid. Horror can open on virtually any date, create a clean hook for previews and reels, and outperform with audiences that arrive on preview nights and keep coming through the second frame if the film connects. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits faith in that dynamic. The year begins with a heavy January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while making space for a fall cadence that reaches into spooky season and into the next week. The layout also spotlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is series management across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just releasing another follow-up. They are setting up threaded continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that flags a tonal shift or a star attachment that connects a upcoming film to a initial period. At the same time, the directors behind the high-profile originals are returning to in-camera technique, real effects and distinct locales. That fusion delivers 2026 a healthy mix of home base and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two spotlight moves that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a memory-charged approach without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push centered on heritage visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, heartbroken, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date sets it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes love and fear.

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 posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are presented as event films, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to command 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first method can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium format interest and fandom activation.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that amplifies both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the later phase. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries near their drops and making event-like arrivals with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of targeted cinema placements and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. 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 as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, the 2026 slate favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is known enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which align with con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the 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 tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once this content played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win 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 moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s artificial companion evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 severe boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the control balance turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that frames the panic through a little one’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. 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, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then movies the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.