Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One unnerving metaphysical thriller from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old terror when passersby become proxies in a fiendish experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of resistance and prehistoric entity that will redefine horror this season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick tale follows five people who are stirred confined in a isolated structure under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Be prepared to be immersed by a narrative experience that blends deep-seated panic with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the forces no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather inside them. This represents the malevolent corner of these individuals. The result is a psychologically brutal moral showdown where the plotline becomes a unyielding contest between innocence and sin.


In a remote backcountry, five figures find themselves marooned under the malicious control and spiritual invasion of a enigmatic character. As the survivors becomes submissive to oppose her command, disconnected and followed by creatures indescribable, they are obligated to deal with their deepest fears while the hours coldly edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear grows and links collapse, pressuring each survivor to contemplate their character and the notion of self-determination itself. The pressure grow with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to channel deep fear, an spirit from ancient eras, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and challenging a will that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that flip is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing subscribers globally can watch this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has garnered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this visceral trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the film’s website.





Current horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 stateside slate weaves legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, and series shake-ups

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in mythic scripture through to series comebacks alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios are anchoring the year via recognizable brands, at the same time platform operators prime the fall with unboxed visions and mythic dread. Meanwhile, horror’s indie wing is fueled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer winds down, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: 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. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. 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 explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

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. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching Horror slate: Sequels, filmmaker-first projects, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The upcoming terror year crowds from day one with a January glut, then carries through peak season, and continuing into the holiday frame, braiding series momentum, original angles, and calculated counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that turn these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has grown into the most reliable swing in studio lineups, a pillar that can surge when it catches and still buffer the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that modestly budgeted entries can shape the national conversation, the following year continued the surge with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam fed into 2025, where returns and prestige plays confirmed there is room for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the field, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened focus on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Executives say the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can roll out on open real estate, furnish a tight logline for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with fans that come out on opening previews and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the entry connects. Following a production delay era, the 2026 pattern demonstrates comfort in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a busy January run, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a autumn stretch that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The schedule also underscores the ongoing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and roll out at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just greenlighting another installment. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a new vibe or a star attachment that binds a new installment to a original cycle. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring practical craft, real effects and grounded locations. That blend affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a fan-service aware framework without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout fueled by classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s releases are set up as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, on-set effects led approach can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Look for a red-band summer horror rush that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster craft, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that expands both first-week urgency and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival deals, confirming horror entries toward the drop and staging as events arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an constructive signal navigate here for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which match well with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

December 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, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the pecking order tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting piece that routes the horror through a preteen’s wavering personal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family entangled with past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. 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: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out 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 different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.