Age-old Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An haunting metaphysical scare-fest from scriptwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an forgotten malevolence when outsiders become pawns in a supernatural conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of continuance and primeval wickedness that will reshape scare flicks this season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive story follows five teens who are stirred stuck in a cut-off house under the hostile command of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Prepare to be absorbed by a immersive venture that fuses bodily fright with mythic lore, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a recurring tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the demons no longer develop beyond the self, but rather within themselves. This represents the most sinister shade of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a perpetual struggle between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving outland, five youths find themselves sealed under the malicious aura and inhabitation of a unidentified figure. As the protagonists becomes incapable to fight her grasp, detached and preyed upon by creatures unfathomable, they are compelled to endure their soulful dreads while the final hour harrowingly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and teams splinter, forcing each member to doubt their existence and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The hazard intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines paranormal dread with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract primitive panic, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and testing a entity that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering streamers globally can survive this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, bringing the film to a global viewership.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this launch day to witness these nightmarish insights about free will.


For film updates, production news, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 stateside slate weaves Mythic Possession, indie terrors, and returning-series thunder

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by mythic scripture and stretching into franchise returns plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted plus intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios bookend the months through proven series, as streaming platforms flood the fall with new perspectives together with primordial unease. At the same time, the art-house flank is riding the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

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

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is 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 continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The forthcoming 2026 terror season: entries, original films, as well as A packed Calendar optimized for chills

Dek The incoming scare calendar crams up front with a January pile-up, from there extends through the mid-year, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, untold stories, and savvy counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that pivot these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has grown into the bankable option in studio calendars, a pillar that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it misses. After 2023 reassured top brass that responsibly budgeted fright engines can lead audience talk, the following year kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The carry flowed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films proved there is demand for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a lineup that presents tight coordination across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of brand names and original hooks, and a refocused eye on release windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and stick through the week two if the offering connects. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 mapping demonstrates faith in that approach. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while saving space for a fall run that connects to the fright window and into the next week. The schedule also underscores the increasing integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and grow at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is IP cultivation across shared universes and established properties. Studio teams are not just greenlighting another entry. They are trying to present story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a star attachment that binds a latest entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical gags and vivid settings. That alloy offers 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and newness, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a classic-referencing approach without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push anchored in franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are sold as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without click to read more spoilers the concept. The late-month date affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that amplifies both debut momentum and trial spikes navigate to this website in the back half. Prime Video will mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival pickups, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a staged of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Keep an eye on 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 as a pair, using limited theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is leading with core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set clarify the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not block a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring stage summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The 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 sharpens 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 workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-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 severe boss claw to survive on a remote island as the power balance inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 household haunting premise that channels the fear through a preteen’s uneven internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. 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 period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where midrange-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, and cinematography that get redirected here benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.