Ancient Terror awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on major platforms

An bone-chilling otherworldly nightmare movie from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten terror when passersby become pawns in a satanic ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of living through and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this October. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who arise ensnared in a off-grid structure under the hostile influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be gripped by a audio-visual journey that harmonizes deep-seated panic with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the entities no longer come from a different plane, but rather internally. This embodies the most terrifying facet of the protagonists. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five friends find themselves cornered under the ghastly effect and possession of a mysterious being. As the team becomes vulnerable to reject her influence, severed and tormented by creatures unnamable, they are compelled to acknowledge their inner demons while the hours relentlessly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and links disintegrate, prompting each protagonist to contemplate their values and the idea of liberty itself. The consequences climb with every tick, delivering a horror experience that merges occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore instinctual horror, an presence born of forgotten ages, manipulating soul-level flaws, and confronting a force that strips down our being when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering horror lovers worldwide can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these chilling revelations about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and news from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar braids together Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, set against Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from last-stand terror rooted in mythic scripture all the way to installment follow-ups in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned paired with blueprinted year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, simultaneously OTT services stack the fall with discovery plays plus primordial unease. On another front, independent banners is drafting behind the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp starts the year with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

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

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult 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

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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 trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller Year Ahead: installments, Originals, together with A brimming Calendar geared toward nightmares

Dek The fresh horror cycle clusters in short order with a January logjam, subsequently rolls through the mid-year, and running into the late-year period, weaving legacy muscle, new voices, and shrewd offsets. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has proven to be the predictable lever in distribution calendars, a segment that can spike when it hits and still buffer the losses when it stumbles. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that low-to-mid budget shockers can shape pop culture, 2024 continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The energy translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and awards-minded projects underscored there is demand for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across the market, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a revived strategy on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now operates like a versatile piece on the rollout map. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, generate a tight logline for trailers and social clips, and outpace with patrons that turn out on advance nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the picture pays off. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence reflects comfort in that logic. The slate starts with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while saving space for a fall corridor that flows toward Halloween and past Halloween. The schedule also spotlights the ongoing integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and scale up at the precise moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across unified worlds and long-running brands. Big banners are not just releasing another continuation. They are working to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a new tone or a star attachment that anchors a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are returning to material texture, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That interplay hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of home base and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a classic-referencing campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Plan for a rollout driven by heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew eerie street stunts and bite-size content that melds companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a gritty, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Expect a splatter summer horror rush that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining great post to read a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is calling a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video balances licensed content with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which favor con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that elevate fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. 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 artificial companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that teases the dread of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-built and A-list fronted supernatural 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 satirical comeback that needles today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. 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 period language and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sonics, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.