Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across major platforms

A eerie otherworldly horror tale from screenwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried evil when drifters become subjects in a devilish trial. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of living through and old world terror that will revolutionize genre cinema this fall. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and emotionally thick screenplay follows five strangers who regain consciousness locked in a unreachable hideaway under the hostile sway of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a millennia-old biblical demon. Prepare to be shaken by a audio-visual presentation that melds instinctive fear with folklore, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is twisted when the beings no longer form from beyond, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the most terrifying aspect of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a unforgiving contest between innocence and sin.


In a isolated landscape, five friends find themselves stuck under the ghastly force and spiritual invasion of a elusive being. As the team becomes vulnerable to oppose her control, cut off and pursued by beings impossible to understand, they are driven to deal with their emotional phantoms while the timeline mercilessly edges forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and ties splinter, demanding each participant to examine their values and the principle of personal agency itself. The stakes grow with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon basic terror, an curse that existed before mankind, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and testing a spirit that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure customers globally can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Mark your calendar for this soul-jarring fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to confront these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For film updates, extra content, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts blends biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Across survival horror steeped in primordial scripture through to franchise returns paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated together with blueprinted year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios stabilize the year with known properties, while streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays and legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is buoyed by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, hence 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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. It is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage 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 first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

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

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The oncoming scare release year: next chapters, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The emerging horror calendar crams right away with a January logjam, following that runs through midyear, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, creative pitches, and shrewd calendar placement. Studios with streamers are committing to responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has grown into the sturdy release in studio slates, a segment that can accelerate when it catches and still cushion the losses when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured studio brass that mid-range shockers can galvanize the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The energy flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries underscored there is a market for several lanes, from legacy continuations to fresh IP that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that reads highly synchronized across studios, with clear date clusters, a spread of brand names and new pitches, and a revived attention on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. Horror can bow on open real estate, supply a clean hook for creative and TikTok spots, and overperform with audiences that line up on Thursday previews and sustain through the next weekend if the movie satisfies. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout underscores belief in that playbook. The year kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a late-year stretch that connects to the Halloween corridor and into November. The layout also highlights the greater integration of boutique distributors and SVOD players that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and grow at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across linked properties and classic IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the same time, the auteurs behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of trust and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a roots-evoking campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push driven by recognizable motifs, character previews, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen 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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on creepy live activations and quick hits that melds love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development 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 official title to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first method can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror jolt that pushes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. 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 alive while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back 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 clearer mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working my review here with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in careful craft and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that boosts both launch urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using editorial spots, fright rows, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has paid off 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 often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by 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 as partners, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the assembly is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, my company a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor fan conventions and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run navigate here for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. 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 devastated man’s intelligent companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror 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 be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 battle to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting narrative that interrogates the fright of a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 dark-horse hunt 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, 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 surface detail, sound, and picture 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, 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, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.