Ancient Horror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising chiller, debuting Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An hair-raising supernatural suspense film from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval nightmare when strangers become puppets in a satanic contest. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of resilience and ancient evil that will revolutionize terror storytelling this spooky time. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic suspense flick follows five individuals who come to locked in a hidden wooden structure under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a legendary ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be captivated by a narrative journey that combines gut-punch terror with ancient myths, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the beings no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This portrays the most terrifying dimension of each of them. The result is a riveting inner struggle where the suspense becomes a relentless clash between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five campers find themselves isolated under the malicious dominion and possession of a secretive person. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to combat her dominion, marooned and chased by entities mind-shattering, they are pushed to stand before their inner demons while the hours unceasingly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and partnerships erode, driving each soul to reconsider their true nature and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The intensity escalate with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into instinctual horror, an entity from prehistory, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and highlighting a power that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing households around the globe can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has garnered over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this cinematic voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to explore these unholy truths about the soul.


For previews, production news, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 domestic schedule integrates archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, alongside brand-name tremors

Beginning with survivor-centric dread infused with biblical myth and including legacy revivals set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the richest in tandem with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors hold down the year by way of signature titles, as streaming platforms saturate the fall with new voices in concert with scriptural shivers. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting 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.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale 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 narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

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 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fear year to come: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The new genre slate crowds up front with a January logjam, following that carries through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving franchise firepower, untold stories, and smart offsets. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the surest option in studio calendars, a vertical that can grow when it connects and still insulate the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The momentum flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings showed there is appetite for a spectrum, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Planners observe the category now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can premiere on many corridors, supply a clear pitch for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that turn out on advance nights and sustain through the week two if the movie fires. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm reflects certainty in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a weighty January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a autumn push that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just rolling another next film. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that threads a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are championing hands-on technique, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That combination offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and newness, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket moves 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 forefront, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run anchored in classic imagery, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that fuses devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are treated as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to take 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered style can feel premium on a middle budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and creature work, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on minute detail and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that amplifies both FOMO and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and staging as events go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of navigate here precision releases and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to expand. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception merits. Plan on 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 small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to link the films through character and theme and to leave creative active without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries signal a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 abrasive boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that twists the dread of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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, news though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and picture 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 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition 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, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.