Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval malevolence, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An frightening otherworldly suspense film from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old horror when newcomers become vehicles in a fiendish game. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense portrayal of resilience and prehistoric entity that will reconstruct the fear genre this fall. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick story follows five individuals who wake up imprisoned in a remote shelter under the hostile rule of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a biblical-era Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a filmic adventure that unites deep-seated panic with legendary tales, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the presences no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This marks the haunting version of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the conflict becomes a perpetual fight between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five souls find themselves confined under the malevolent dominion and inhabitation of a shadowy female figure. As the survivors becomes helpless to withstand her curse, detached and targeted by creatures unnamable, they are confronted to endure their deepest fears while the doomsday meter coldly strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and associations disintegrate, coercing each individual to evaluate their essence and the structure of autonomy itself. The consequences grow with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into primal fear, an spirit before modern man, working through soul-level flaws, and confronting a power that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for digital release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering users internationally can engage with this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these terrifying truths about free will.


For sneak peeks, special features, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup fuses biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, together with IP aftershocks

Moving from last-stand terror drawn from mythic scripture through to series comebacks alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most stratified together with deliberate year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners stabilize the year with franchise anchors, while digital services front-load the fall with debut heat alongside ancestral chills. At the same time, independent banners is surfing the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp opens the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed 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 a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fright slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A packed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The upcoming terror season loads in short order with a January glut, after that unfolds through summer corridors, and continuing into the holiday frame, combining IP strength, fresh ideas, and well-timed alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has solidified as the bankable move in release strategies, a genre that can expand when it connects and still insulate the risk when it falls short. After 2023 reminded executives that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can dominate cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers proved there is an opening for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The result for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across players, with planned clusters, a harmony of established brands and new concepts, and a sharpened attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the distribution slate. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, offer a clear pitch for teasers and shorts, and outpace with fans that lean in on Thursday previews and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the entry hits. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects conviction in that setup. The calendar begins with a loaded January band, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while making space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of indie arms and home platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and expand at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. The companies are not just mounting another return. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that links a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating in-camera technique, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a strong blend of recognition and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, angling it as both a succession moment and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a heritage-honoring angle without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise creepy live activations and short-cut promos that interweaves love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril imp source vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a proper title to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to lead 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror hit that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can drive premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by meticulous craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that boosts both first-week urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines library titles with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival snaps, locking in horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set announce the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not hamper a parallel release from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind these films indicate a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge 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 peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that teases the terror of a child’s wobbly perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan snared by ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. 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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and pared-down timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-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 use those gaps. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.