Age-old Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, bowing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A unnerving otherworldly thriller from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried evil when foreigners become proxies in a devilish ceremony. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense narrative of resistance and ancient evil that will revamp scare flicks this ghoul season. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive story follows five lost souls who snap to imprisoned in a isolated structure under the hostile grip of Kyra, a female presence controlled by a legendary scriptural evil. Be warned to be drawn in by a big screen journey that blends soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the dark entities no longer come from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the haunting aspect of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the drama becomes a brutal struggle between virtue and vice.


In a remote no-man's-land, five figures find themselves contained under the malicious control and inhabitation of a enigmatic spirit. As the team becomes vulnerable to withstand her curse, exiled and pursued by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are required to encounter their deepest fears while the deathwatch relentlessly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and ties splinter, coercing each protagonist to reconsider their personhood and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The intensity climb with every short lapse, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into primitive panic, an spirit that predates humanity, emerging via fragile psyche, and questioning a darkness that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that turn is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing fans internationally can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this visceral path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to confront these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and insider scoops from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. rollouts interlaces old-world possession, underground frights, alongside franchise surges

Spanning endurance-driven terror suffused with legendary theology as well as brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, at the same time premium streamers prime the fall with discovery plays together with old-world menace. On another front, independent banners is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed 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 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. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to 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
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror lineup: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The fresh scare year crowds from the jump with a January traffic jam, before it unfolds through summer corridors, and pushing into the December corridor, blending marquee clout, inventive spins, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing cost discipline, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that transform these releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the most reliable lever in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it breaks through and still hedge the floor when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught executives that mid-range shockers can galvanize social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum moved into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films proved there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across players, with planned clusters, a combination of established brands and first-time concepts, and a revived emphasis on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Studio leaders note the category now acts as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, offer a grabby hook for marketing and vertical videos, and lead with ticket buyers that respond on advance nights and sustain through the next weekend if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits certainty in that playbook. The slate starts with a front-loaded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that connects to the Halloween corridor and into November. The arrangement also highlights the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and widen at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. Major shops are not just rolling another entry. They are looking to package lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to physical effects work, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That interplay gives 2026 a robust balance of comfort and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two prominent releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a roots-evoking framework without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push stacked with brand visuals, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that becomes a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to renew odd public stunts and brief clips that threads affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the this page 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 allows a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around lore, and monster craft, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries closer to launch and eventizing rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling 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 offer is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern sonics 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 cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to Get More Info broaden. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not deter a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind these films point to a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid heavier IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first 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 hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and rising 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 narrative that refracts terror through a young child’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family caught in returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound field, and cinematography 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.