Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

An spine-tingling otherworldly terror film from writer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried malevolence when unrelated individuals become victims in a supernatural struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of continuance and archaic horror that will alter the fear genre this October. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and moody cinema piece follows five characters who find themselves caught in a wilderness-bound cottage under the ominous command of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be absorbed by a narrative presentation that weaves together raw fear with mythic lore, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the spirits no longer arise from an outside force, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the most sinister facet of every character. The result is a enthralling internal warfare where the story becomes a relentless push-pull between light and darkness.


In a remote backcountry, five youths find themselves trapped under the sinister effect and control of a shadowy entity. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to escape her rule, detached and tracked by evils unnamable, they are pushed to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the clock without pity edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and partnerships shatter, pressuring each figure to doubt their personhood and the nature of independent thought itself. The tension escalate with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that blends paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken primal fear, an spirit older than civilization itself, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and challenging a entity that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing audiences globally can get immersed in this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has racked up over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these haunting secrets about mankind.


For featurettes, extra content, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 stateside slate melds primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, together with brand-name tremors

Spanning survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore all the way to brand-name continuations plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most stratified along with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios set cornerstones with known properties, concurrently subscription platforms crowd the fall with debut heat as well as mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is carried on the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal begins the calendar with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with 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 all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided 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.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 spook season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A hectic Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The current horror season lines up from the jump with a January logjam, and then extends through the summer months, and running into the festive period, combining name recognition, novel approaches, and smart counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that shape genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the steady play in programming grids, a genre that can accelerate when it performs and still limit the risk when it misses. After 2023 reconfirmed for buyers that modestly budgeted scare machines can dominate the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for different modes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a combination of household franchises and new pitches, and a re-energized focus on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Executives say the space now serves as a versatile piece on the calendar. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a grabby hook for previews and vertical videos, and outpace with crowds that respond on first-look nights and stick through the second frame if the entry lands. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores belief in that setup. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a autumn push that runs into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized labels and platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and widen at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across linked properties and storied titles. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that anchors a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay hands 2026 a strong blend of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent releases 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 focus, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a memory-charged bent without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign leaning on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that interweaves intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a tactile, on-set effects led treatment can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by minute detail and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team 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 supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution great post to read is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films telegraph a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. 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 brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s digital partner turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss work to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and oozing 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 in-home haunting story that routes the horror through a child’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 use those gaps. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, acoustics, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.