Ancient Darkness awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, bowing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One chilling occult suspense film from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic horror when unrelated individuals become victims in a malevolent trial. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of survival and ancient evil that will alter the fear genre this Halloween season. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic thriller follows five strangers who come to locked in a wooded house under the ominous power of Kyra, a central character consumed by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be drawn in by a theatrical presentation that melds bodily fright with ancient myths, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the fiends no longer develop beyond the self, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the darkest part of the cast. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the intensity becomes a perpetual face-off between good and evil.


In a barren forest, five characters find themselves sealed under the ominous sway and overtake of a unidentified being. As the companions becomes incapacitated to break her influence, isolated and preyed upon by forces beyond reason, they are pushed to acknowledge their deepest fears while the seconds unceasingly strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and alliances shatter, prompting each protagonist to scrutinize their self and the structure of volition itself. The stakes climb with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore ancestral fear, an power beyond recorded history, influencing human fragility, and navigating a power that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that change is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers from coast to coast can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping spiral into evil. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to confront these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the official website.





American horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 American release plan weaves Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with survival horror rooted in scriptural legend to legacy revivals paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with familiar IP, as OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions set against ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is catching the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. 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 Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep 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.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

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

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

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A stacked Calendar Built For chills

Dek: The incoming terror season loads immediately with a January bottleneck, then stretches through the warm months, and deep into the holiday frame, blending legacy muscle, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame these offerings into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the sturdy move in studio slates, a pillar that can accelerate when it lands and still protect the drawdown when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that cost-conscious chillers can shape pop culture, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that carry overseas. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new packages, and a renewed focus on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Insiders argue the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, offer a clean hook for previews and TikTok spots, and outpace with viewers that show up on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the offering pays off. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm signals faith in that dynamic. The slate kicks off with a weighty January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that flows toward All Hallows period and afterwards. The grid also spotlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a tonal shift or a talent selection that bridges a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence hands 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount opens strong with two prominent bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected driven by iconic art, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate broad awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that shifts into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror eerie street stunts and short reels that mixes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both launch urgency and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and positioning as event drops releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern audio-visual craft. 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 telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The standing approach is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which work nicely for expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers 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 flows into 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds 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 landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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 oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around 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 heartbroken man’s digital partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that twists the dread of a child’s inconsistent POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, useful reference with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan snared by residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 quiet breakout 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. Expect a healthy 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 rhythm across the year

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

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined 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 detail, sound field, and imagery 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.