Age-old Horror awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

One terrifying paranormal fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic dread when unknowns become tools in a diabolical maze. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of staying alive and old world terror that will resculpt genre cinema this cool-weather season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic feature follows five people who wake up locked in a wilderness-bound lodge under the dark influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be immersed by a screen-based spectacle that combines raw fear with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is subverted when the forces no longer develop from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the most hidden part of all involved. The result is a harrowing mind game where the narrative becomes a ongoing confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving landscape, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the malicious aura and overtake of a shadowy spirit. As the group becomes defenseless to escape her will, detached and chased by powers impossible to understand, they are confronted to wrestle with their inner horrors while the final hour ruthlessly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and friendships collapse, prompting each soul to challenge their essence and the notion of self-determination itself. The hazard accelerate with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into pure dread, an presence older than civilization itself, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and testing a entity that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring watchers everywhere can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Join this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to dive into these chilling revelations about the psyche.


For director insights, making-of footage, and announcements from the creators, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 stateside slate integrates biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, plus series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with ancient scripture all the way to brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, at the same time subscription platforms stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancient terrors. In the indie lane, independent banners is riding the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

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

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. 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. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fear calendar year ahead: brand plays, non-franchise titles, plus A hectic Calendar Built For shocks

Dek The upcoming horror year crowds early with a January wave, following that flows through midyear, and running into the festive period, weaving marquee clout, creative pitches, and tactical counter-scheduling. The major players are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that pivot horror entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has grown into the sturdy lever in release plans, a lane that can lift when it connects and still cushion the downside when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to top brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can steer the discourse, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The momentum flowed into 2025, where re-entries and critical darlings showed there is an opening for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to director-led originals that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the market, with planned clusters, a combination of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated stance on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Studio leaders note the genre now works like a fill-in ace on the release plan. The genre can kick off on many corridors, offer a easy sell for trailers and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that line up on first-look nights and stick through the second weekend if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence underscores certainty in that playbook. The slate gets underway with a weighty January block, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a autumn stretch that runs into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The map also features the greater integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and grow at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across shared IP webs and legacy franchises. The companies are not just releasing another installment. They are setting up story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a new tone or a lead change that threads a upcoming film to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating on-set craft, special makeup and specific settings. That combination produces 2026 a lively combination of assurance and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push centered on heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites 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 headline the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will go after wide buzz through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is crisp, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man installs an AI companion that becomes a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that mixes devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under movies temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are framed as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, practical-first aesthetic can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. check over here An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 driven by minute detail and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that fortifies both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the back half. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops releases with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not hamper a day-date try from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which align with fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. 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 credible, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring load in summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious navigate to this website entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that teases the terror of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. 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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan anchored to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. 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-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, 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 detail, soundcraft, and framing 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, cut sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.