Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This blood-curdling otherworldly suspense story from author / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an long-buried entity when unfamiliar people become pawns in a diabolical ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful tale of living through and mythic evil that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this autumn. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and immersive story follows five strangers who come to locked in a remote cabin under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a antiquated scriptural evil. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a visual event that harmonizes gut-punch terror with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a enduring tradition in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the beings no longer descend beyond the self, but rather inside them. This mirrors the deepest version of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the emotions becomes a ongoing confrontation between heaven and hell.


In a desolate wilderness, five teens find themselves trapped under the possessive dominion and control of a unknown woman. As the companions becomes incapacitated to break her curse, severed and hunted by creatures mind-shattering, they are required to acknowledge their inner demons while the deathwatch unforgivingly moves toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease intensifies and links collapse, requiring each character to contemplate their essence and the idea of free will itself. The tension mount with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon basic terror, an curse from ancient eras, manipulating fragile psyche, and questioning a being that strips down our being when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers no matter where they are can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Experience this heart-stopping exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: 2025 domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, set against Franchise Rumbles

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from old testament echoes as well as installment follow-ups set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted as well as deliberate year in a decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners hold down the year with established lines, concurrently streamers saturate the fall with unboxed visions as well as old-world menace. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is riding the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. 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. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 genre Year Ahead: returning titles, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For chills

Dek The emerging terror cycle builds at the outset with a January logjam, thereafter rolls through summer, and straight through the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that pivot these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent tool in release plans, a genre that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it does not. After 2023 showed buyers that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The trend flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that travel well. The result for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can bow on virtually any date, provide a sharp concept for creative and reels, and over-index with ticket buyers that come out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the film satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows faith in that dynamic. The year launches with a heavy January window, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into the next week. The program also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a re-angled tone or a star attachment that reconnects a next film to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing real-world builds, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two spotlight pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a handoff and a rootsy character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a heritage-honoring framework without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave centered on classic imagery, early character teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an algorithmic mate that shifts into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to mirror eerie street stunts and short reels that interweaves devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His projects are set up as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot gives the studio room to take 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a in-your-face, physical-effects centered approach can feel big on a middle budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is framing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build assets around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by minute detail and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using timely promos, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival pickups, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of precision releases and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception allows. Look 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns frame the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 shot consecutively, lets marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without lulls.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel compelling. Look for trailers that emphasize pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 navigate to this website Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s movies 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting narrative that frames the panic through a youth’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for 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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. 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 era-accurate language and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more structured 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 dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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 aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 shock over-performer 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 great post to read fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, 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 established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.