Ancient Malevolence surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked chiller, rolling out October 2025 on leading streamers

One spine-tingling spiritual thriller from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient dread when unrelated individuals become puppets in a diabolical struggle. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching portrayal of staying alive and timeless dread that will reshape the fear genre this scare season. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric story follows five characters who suddenly rise stuck in a unreachable cabin under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Be prepared to be captivated by a screen-based event that combines bone-deep fear with mythic lore, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay foundation in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the forces no longer come beyond the self, but rather inside them. This embodies the malevolent facet of these individuals. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a perpetual confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five individuals find themselves contained under the malevolent grip and domination of a haunted person. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to fight her manipulation, left alone and tormented by evils inconceivable, they are confronted to endure their core terrors while the hours without pity ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and associations dissolve, requiring each figure to doubt their essence and the philosophy of freedom of choice itself. The danger surge with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges supernatural terror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover core terror, an entity beyond time, manifesting in fragile psyche, and dealing with a power that threatens selfhood when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that transition is haunting because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering users no matter where they are can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this visceral descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these spiritual awakenings about human nature.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by old testament echoes as well as series comebacks alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned as well as calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, even as SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives in concert with ancient terrors. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult 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 dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. 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 mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare cycle: returning titles, universe starters, as well as A hectic Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The brand-new genre slate crowds from day one with a January crush, before it stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holiday frame, blending legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that elevate these releases into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has grown into the most reliable lever in distribution calendars, a lane that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that modestly budgeted scare machines can dominate cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and premium-leaning entries underscored there is an opening for many shades, from returning installments to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The combined impact for 2026 is a programming that shows rare alignment across the field, with planned clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and new packages, and a re-energized commitment on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the genre now slots in as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, furnish a easy sell for promo reels and short-form placements, and overperform with fans that show up on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the film connects. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern reflects belief in that engine. The slate kicks off with a stacked January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a October build that carries into Halloween and past the holiday. The grid also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can platform and widen, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Major shops are not just producing another installment. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a reframed mood or a star attachment that binds a incoming chapter to a early run. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing in-camera technique, on-set effects and grounded locations. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a handoff and a classic-mode character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a fan-service aware strategy without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push centered on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer alternative, this one will generate general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick pivots to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man sets up an machine companion that mutates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that melds affection and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an event moment closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele titles are sold as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio deploys two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a sequence that expands both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix licensed content with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of precision releases and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, guiding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Keep an eye on 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 together, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, 2026 leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror indicate a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which align with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that teases the horror of a child’s inconsistent read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider horror appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental dread. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, and visual design 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 set. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.