Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A chilling ghostly nightmare movie from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten force when drifters become tokens in a demonic conflict. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of continuance and primordial malevolence that will redefine scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic screenplay follows five people who emerge imprisoned in a wilderness-bound shack under the sinister sway of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a biblical-era Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be hooked by a theatrical spectacle that harmonizes bone-deep fear with legendary tales, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the entities no longer arise from external sources, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the shadowy element of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a unyielding push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five friends find themselves marooned under the malevolent control and possession of a elusive being. As the cast becomes paralyzed to oppose her manipulation, abandoned and followed by forces unnamable, they are confronted to encounter their core terrors while the doomsday meter brutally draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and alliances implode, forcing each figure to evaluate their personhood and the philosophy of volition itself. The hazard accelerate with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dig into raw dread, an entity older than civilization itself, operating within emotional fractures, and navigating a spirit that peels away humanity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the demon emerges, and that evolution is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing households internationally can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has earned over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule Mixes myth-forward possession, indie terrors, plus Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in scriptural legend through to series comebacks as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the richest together with blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios stabilize the year with known properties, in parallel OTT services pack the fall with fresh voices alongside ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp starts the year with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led 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 work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

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.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fright Year Ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, plus A packed Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The current scare season crams in short order with a January crush, before it spreads through peak season, and deep into the December corridor, marrying marquee clout, new concepts, and smart counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that transform genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has grown into the predictable option in release strategies, a lane that can break out when it lands and still hedge the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious genre plays can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The energy moved into 2025, where re-entries and elevated films made clear there is room for different modes, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a run that appears tightly organized across the market, with purposeful groupings, a combination of familiar brands and new pitches, and a recommitted emphasis on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now works like a swing piece on the grid. Horror can arrive on virtually any date, offer a grabby hook for trailers and short-form placements, and over-index with crowds that turn out on preview nights and sustain through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout shows belief in that setup. The year gets underway with a loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward Halloween and into the next week. The layout also shows the continuing integration of indie distributors and streamers that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and broaden at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. The players are not just mounting another return. They are setting up lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that signals a tonal shift or a casting choice that ties a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the most watched originals are leaning into on-set craft, on-set effects and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides 2026 a confident blend of comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a throwback-friendly campaign without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push leaning on franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will build wide buzz Young & Cursed through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that melds devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are marketed as filmmaker events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy method can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can lift PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that elevates both premiere heat and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception justifies. 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 parallel, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, the 2026 slate leans More about the author toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Three-year comps make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and elevate 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month ends 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 serious, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and 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 continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. 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 algorithmic partner unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 demanding boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic shifts and mistrust rises. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that filters its scares through a child’s uneven inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that targets today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 surprise 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 fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, audio design, and framing 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.