Ancient Terror Surfaces in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

An unnerving otherworldly fright fest from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an archaic terror when passersby become tools in a supernatural struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of resilience and forgotten curse that will reconstruct horror this autumn. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and eerie story follows five lost souls who are stirred isolated in a unreachable house under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a timeless ancient fiend. Get ready to be shaken by a narrative display that weaves together bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the presences no longer descend externally, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the darkest layer of all involved. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the tension becomes a merciless face-off between purity and corruption.


In a haunting terrain, five adults find themselves caught under the ominous control and curse of a secretive spirit. As the survivors becomes unable to withstand her influence, left alone and tracked by presences beyond comprehension, they are cornered to stand before their darkest emotions while the time without pity ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension deepens and associations crack, forcing each member to rethink their being and the principle of self-determination itself. The pressure mount with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that merges spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into instinctual horror, an threat that predates humanity, operating within fragile psyche, and questioning a will that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers around the globe can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over strong viewer count.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this life-altering descent into hell. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these dark realities about human nature.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 stateside slate interlaces ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes as well as legacy revivals alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted and blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors hold down the year with franchise anchors, as premium streamers flood the fall with discovery plays in concert with mythic dread. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

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

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The follow up digs further into canon, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next scare Year Ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, And A loaded Calendar engineered for frights

Dek The brand-new horror calendar loads from day one with a January bottleneck, and then carries through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday stretch, mixing legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has turned into the steady swing in release strategies, a vertical that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The run moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to director-led originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a tightened strategy on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now acts as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can open on open real estate, create a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on early shows and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping indicates certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a heavy January block, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a September to October window that stretches into the Halloween corridor and into early November. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and roll out at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is legacy care across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just releasing another entry. They are aiming to frame story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that signals a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that binds a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That alloy gives the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and freshness, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a memory-charged approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 linchpin the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo uncanny live moments and bite-size content that interlaces love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror shock that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets 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 clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can stoke format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 centered on careful craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence check over here in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using featured rows, October hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival additions, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and image. 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 announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Be ready for 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 together, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to link the films through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre suggest a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which fit with convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. 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 heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

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 collide with a shifting 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that threads the dread through a little one’s volatile personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and star-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family snared by ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. 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 time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, audio design, and visual design 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.