Age-old Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An hair-raising paranormal suspense story from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic terror when passersby become tools in a supernatural contest. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of staying alive and ancient evil that will revamp scare flicks this Halloween season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five lost souls who emerge trapped in a off-grid cabin under the unfriendly control of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Brace yourself to be immersed by a visual presentation that fuses gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary tradition in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is redefined when the monsters no longer arise externally, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the shadowy version of every character. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the plotline becomes a ongoing clash between heaven and hell.


In a bleak woodland, five youths find themselves confined under the dark control and inhabitation of a enigmatic female figure. As the survivors becomes vulnerable to fight her curse, exiled and followed by powers indescribable, they are forced to encounter their worst nightmares while the final hour mercilessly pushes forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and alliances collapse, compelling each survivor to examine their personhood and the idea of volition itself. The consequences magnify with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines supernatural terror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke ancestral fear, an spirit that existed before mankind, manifesting in inner turmoil, and examining a evil that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that horror lovers across the world can be part of this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to uncover these unholy truths about existence.


For film updates, extra content, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, alongside legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by biblical myth and including legacy revivals plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated plus tactically planned year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios set cornerstones using marquee IP, even as streamers saturate the fall with new voices as well as ancient terrors. In parallel, indie storytellers is riding the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

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

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

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. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. 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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The coming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: continuations, new stories, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming scare year clusters right away with a January logjam, following that carries through the summer months, and pushing into the festive period, weaving name recognition, new voices, and smart counterplay. The major players are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that elevate genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it lands and still insulate the drawdown when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year proved to leaders that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles signaled there is space for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that shows rare alignment across companies, with obvious clusters, a harmony of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can arrive on open real estate, generate a grabby hook for teasers and vertical videos, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the picture fires. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates confidence in that setup. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while making space for a autumn stretch that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The arrangement also features the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and grow at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is brand management across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another follow-up. They are setting up threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that flags a reframed mood or a cast configuration that threads a new installment to a foundational era. At the same time, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are championing in-camera technique, physical gags and specific settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a throwback-friendly framework without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew creepy live activations and micro spots that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are framed as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven approach can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by minute detail and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, October hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix originals and festival additions, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which play well in convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month buttons 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 real, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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

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 collide with a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 tough boss push to survive on a remote island as the power balance inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that pipes the unease through a kid’s flickering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family snared by ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. 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.

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 returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundcraft, 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 click to read more as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.