Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on top streamers

One frightening paranormal horror tale from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten horror when guests become tools in a supernatural contest. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense story of resilience and ancient evil that will reshape terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic story follows five individuals who suddenly rise imprisoned in a remote wooden structure under the ominous influence of Kyra, a central character controlled by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be gripped by a big screen ride that blends primitive horror with legendary tales, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring tradition in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the entities no longer form beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the darkest shade of the cast. The result is a intense mental war where the suspense becomes a perpetual clash between heaven and hell.


In a isolated natural abyss, five friends find themselves trapped under the malicious influence and control of a uncanny spirit. As the youths becomes vulnerable to fight her grasp, marooned and chased by evils impossible to understand, they are pushed to endure their darkest emotions while the countdown ruthlessly ticks toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and relationships erode, pressuring each figure to question their existence and the concept of decision-making itself. The consequences accelerate with every tick, delivering a terror ride that weaves together paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover pure dread, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, emerging via fragile psyche, and testing a force that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the takeover begins, and that change is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing fans around the globe can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has gathered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these unholy truths about existence.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the official website.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 U.S. release slate blends biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, in parallel with series shake-ups

Spanning last-stand terror suffused with biblical myth and onward to IP renewals together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously SVOD players saturate the fall with emerging auteurs together with scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with 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 screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new chiller slate: installments, standalone ideas, as well as A loaded Calendar tailored for chills

Dek: The new scare cycle stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, after that unfolds through the mid-year, and running into the year-end corridor, fusing marquee clout, original angles, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that shape these films into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has become the dependable play in annual schedules, a corner that can surge when it performs and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that modestly budgeted scare machines can own the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam carried into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays proved there is a lane for different modes, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with defined corridors, a pairing of brand names and new concepts, and a sharpened focus on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now performs as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, yield a quick sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and over-index with demo groups that appear on Thursday previews and stay strong through the next pass if the release lands. Coming out of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup indicates assurance in that dynamic. The calendar opens with a busy January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a October build that stretches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The gridline also illustrates the tightening integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just turning out another return. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a refreshed voice or a lead change that connects a new entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into in-camera technique, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That blend affords the 2026 slate a vital pairing of brand comfort and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature work, elements that can stoke large-format demand and community activity.

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 defined by historical precision and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video balances licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen click site the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a traditional cinema play for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to expand. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, 2026 bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not block a parallel release from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and grow scope. 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. 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 survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the see here studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s intelligent companion turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 ventures back 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: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that explores the terror of a child’s shaky senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. 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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family bound to past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 makes sense

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 shock over-performer 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 momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with 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 camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, hold the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.