Mythic Dread Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, landing October 2025 on top streaming platforms

A haunting mystic suspense story from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried dread when unrelated individuals become subjects in a devilish conflict. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of perseverance and mythic evil that will revamp scare flicks this fall. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive thriller follows five lost souls who are stirred locked in a isolated wooden structure under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a tormented girl haunted by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that unites instinctive fear with biblical origins, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the fiends no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This marks the darkest aspect of the group. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the events becomes a relentless tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a remote wild, five young people find themselves cornered under the ominous sway and grasp of a obscure person. As the cast becomes incapable to fight her rule, detached and pursued by creatures unfathomable, they are made to battle their deepest fears while the timeline mercilessly strikes toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and associations shatter, requiring each survivor to question their self and the notion of volition itself. The threat mount with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel primitive panic, an spirit rooted in antiquity, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and highlighting a presence that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is oblivious until the demon emerges, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing watchers worldwide can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this gripping ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to dive into these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For teasers, production news, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Running from survival horror drawn from near-Eastern lore to installment follow-ups paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated as well as intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors lay down anchors with familiar IP, as streamers crowd the fall with fresh voices plus primordial unease. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is catching the tailwinds from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns 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 pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

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

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming spook year to come: next chapters, universe starters, paired with A Crowded Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The brand-new terror cycle builds right away with a January wave, before it rolls through summer corridors, and deep into the year-end corridor, balancing marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are embracing smart costs, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that shape these offerings into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the dependable release in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it catches and still protect the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reminded top brass that low-to-mid budget chillers can own audience talk, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and stealth successes. The momentum pushed into 2025, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is space for a variety of tones, from series extensions to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The result for 2026 is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of household franchises and new pitches, and a renewed strategy on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the space now works like a swing piece on the schedule. Horror can roll out on a wide range of weekends, supply a grabby hook for previews and shorts, and outpace with ticket buyers that lean in on previews Thursday and stay strong through the week two if the release satisfies. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates trust in that logic. The calendar rolls out with a heavy January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a September to October window that pushes into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The program also underscores the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just making another return. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that conveys a new tone or a star attachment that links a next film to a original cycle. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into real-world builds, physical gags and distinct locales. That fusion gives 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 hook the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will go after large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that blurs attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can lift PLF interest and fan events.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by historical precision and language, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries closer to drop and staging as events arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON horror title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the assembly is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a dual release from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 claw to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 intimate haunting scenario that refracts terror through a young child’s unreliable internal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. 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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 chase continues in Q1, where low-to-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, 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 grain, aural design, and framing 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.