Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons mythic darkness, a fear soaked shocker, streaming October 2025 across top digital platforms

One hair-raising ghostly shockfest from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten force when strangers become puppets in a demonic ordeal. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of survival and timeless dread that will alter the fear genre this autumn. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and immersive fearfest follows five individuals who find themselves ensnared in a wilderness-bound structure under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a central character claimed by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Get ready to be seized by a narrative adventure that unites deep-seated panic with timeless legends, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a historical trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the malevolences no longer originate from external sources, but rather deep within. This embodies the most terrifying element of every character. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a ongoing clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five figures find themselves caught under the possessive rule and spiritual invasion of a haunted entity. As the group becomes unresisting to reject her rule, severed and chased by terrors unfathomable, they are made to battle their soulful dreads while the clock coldly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and relationships collapse, demanding each individual to examine their character and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The pressure grow with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that fuses spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into deep fear, an entity rooted in antiquity, feeding on our weaknesses, and dealing with a will that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that flip is harrowing because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers anywhere can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Experience this soul-jarring fall into madness. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For director insights, production insights, and news directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, paired with tentpole growls

From last-stand terror grounded in near-Eastern lore and extending to IP renewals together with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most variegated together with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors bookend the months with familiar IP, concurrently streamers pack the fall with unboxed visions set against primordial unease. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner starts the year with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. 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.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots 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.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new terror season: continuations, Originals, together with A stacked Calendar Built For frights

Dek: The incoming terror cycle crowds from day one with a January cluster, thereafter spreads through midyear, and continuing into the late-year period, blending IP strength, new concepts, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has become the most reliable release in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it breaks through and still protect the drawdown when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and unexpected risers. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that travel well. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and new pitches, and a refocused focus on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. The genre can premiere on most weekends, provide a simple premise for spots and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that turn out on Thursday nights and hold through the second weekend if the entry delivers. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows comfort in that playbook. The year rolls out with a thick January band, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the proper time.

An added macro current is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just making another next film. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a tonal shift or a lead change that reconnects a new installment to a initial period. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a classic-referencing angle without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by iconic art, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-effects forward execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot movies offers Sony space to build assets around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that enhances both first-week urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with audience crossover. 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 sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights 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 engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 marquee brands. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss battle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that manipulates the dread of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and star-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan snared by residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.