Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across leading streamers

An spine-tingling unearthly horror tale from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic malevolence when newcomers become proxies in a cursed ritual. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will resculpt the horror genre this ghoul season. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody fearfest follows five young adults who awaken trapped in a remote shelter under the dark grip of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a legendary religious nightmare. Be warned to be hooked by a cinematic display that combines instinctive fear with ancient myths, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the spirits no longer form outside their bodies, but rather internally. This symbolizes the grimmest part of these individuals. The result is a intense inner struggle where the drama becomes a intense fight between moral forces.


In a barren wilderness, five individuals find themselves caught under the possessive presence and possession of a unknown female presence. As the cast becomes vulnerable to deny her power, severed and tormented by presences unimaginable, they are driven to acknowledge their core terrors while the time mercilessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and links fracture, pressuring each character to challenge their core and the nature of free will itself. The danger surge with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover primal fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, emerging via soul-level flaws, and wrestling with a entity that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that pivot is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers globally can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to uncover these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, set experiences, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. lineup melds primeval-possession lore, Indie Shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Moving from endurance-driven terror rooted in scriptural legend to brand-name continuations in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified paired with precision-timed year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners plant stakes across the year with established lines, as SVOD players crowd the fall with unboxed visions set against ancestral chills. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is riding the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next scare year to come: brand plays, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar loads immediately with a January crush, after that stretches through summer corridors, and running into the winter holidays, balancing name recognition, fresh ideas, and tactical counterplay. The major players are committing to efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that convert these offerings into cross-demo moments.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the consistent counterweight in studio slates, a lane that can lift when it resonates and still insulate the floor when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reassured buyers that responsibly budgeted shockers can shape audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The momentum fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers demonstrated there is space for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The sum for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across players, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated attention on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now behaves like a swing piece on the slate. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a quick sell for creative and social clips, and outperform with audiences that lean in on early shows and continue through the subsequent weekend if the entry delivers. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence signals comfort in that approach. The slate gets underway with a front-loaded January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and afterwards. The layout also shows the greater integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can platform a title, fuel WOM, and broaden at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across ongoing universes and legacy IP. The players are not just rolling another entry. They are moving to present brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing practical craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a throwback-friendly bent without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will hunt large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format permitting quick adjustments to whatever dominates the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is elegant, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that interlaces devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are set up as creative events, with a hinting teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects treatment can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 charge to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche 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 acquire select projects with award winners or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his imp source adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a traditional cinema play for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Look for 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 concert, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years help explain the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not block a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror rose in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and grow 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries point to a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which play well in con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. 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 stiff, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that threads the dread through a young child’s flickering subjective view. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. 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 surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 underdog chase 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep get redirected here the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, 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, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.