Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This haunting paranormal horror tale from cinematographer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial malevolence when strangers become proxies in a dark ritual. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of staying alive and age-old darkness that will reimagine horror this season. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and tone-heavy feature follows five individuals who arise caught in a secluded structure under the hostile control of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Ready yourself to be captivated by a screen-based ride that harmonizes deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is subverted when the entities no longer form externally, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the most hidden side of each of them. The result is a gripping mind game where the conflict becomes a unyielding contest between virtue and vice.


In a haunting wilderness, five youths find themselves marooned under the malicious aura and haunting of a unknown spirit. As the cast becomes incapable to fight her grasp, severed and pursued by creatures unnamable, they are obligated to encounter their inner horrors while the time unforgivingly ticks toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion mounts and partnerships dissolve, forcing each person to rethink their self and the notion of volition itself. The threat mount with every heartbeat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into raw dread, an entity from prehistory, feeding on soul-level flaws, and dealing with a entity that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that turn is shocking because it is so internal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers from coast to coast can watch this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has attracted over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this mind-warping spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these chilling revelations about existence.


For director insights, special features, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate weaves primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, and series shake-ups

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from biblical myth to installment follow-ups as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most variegated combined with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year through proven series, concurrently platform operators front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as mythic dread. At the same time, the artisan tier is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

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

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the Warner lot sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into 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.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

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

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes 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
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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



The new chiller release year: Sequels, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The brand-new terror cycle crams in short order with a January glut, and then rolls through summer corridors, and well into the year-end corridor, braiding series momentum, new concepts, and strategic counterplay. Studios and platforms are committing to lean spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that shape the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that modestly budgeted chillers can own mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and festival-grade titles proved there is appetite for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a run that appears tightly organized across players, with strategic blocks, a blend of brand names and untested plays, and a refocused strategy on box-office windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and subscription services.

Studio leaders note the category now serves as a utility player on the release plan. The genre can arrive on most weekends, yield a easy sell for previews and shorts, and punch above weight with audiences that appear on early shows and stay strong through the week two if the offering works. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 plan reflects assurance in that dynamic. The slate launches with a stacked January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a fall cadence that reaches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The calendar also features the tightening integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can build gradually, grow buzz, and grow at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. The studios are not just mounting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a lead change that anchors a next entry to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing real-world builds, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, signaling it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative stance conveys a classic-referencing strategy without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives 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 as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that mixes affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are treated as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can lift premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical 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+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a traditional cinema play for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Be ready for 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 tandem, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance have a peek here of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and auteur plays provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is known enough to generate pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps outline the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and grow scope. 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 two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind this slate foreshadow a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

How the year maps out

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid big-brand pushes. The month closes 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 menu of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that routes the horror through a little one’s flickering subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family lashed to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 breakout 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.