Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across leading streamers

One spine-tingling metaphysical scare-fest from screenwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless dread when foreigners become subjects in a devilish game. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will revamp the horror genre this scare season. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and shadowy suspense flick follows five characters who arise stuck in a cut-off shelter under the ominous dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a ancient scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be captivated by a motion picture venture that combines soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the spirits no longer form from external sources, but rather deep within. This illustrates the most hidden dimension of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing mind game where the tension becomes a relentless conflict between heaven and hell.


In a bleak natural abyss, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the unholy presence and overtake of a elusive character. As the protagonists becomes submissive to resist her command, cut off and followed by forces unnamable, they are obligated to confront their worst nightmares while the timeline without pause ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and alliances erode, requiring each character to scrutinize their being and the structure of liberty itself. The cost escalate with every beat, delivering a terror ride that weaves together paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke primal fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, emerging via inner turmoil, and questioning a power that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something outside normal anguish. She is innocent until the invasion happens, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers across the world can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these unholy truths about the human condition.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season stateside slate interlaces ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, alongside brand-name tremors

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare rooted in near-Eastern lore and including brand-name continuations in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the richest combined with strategic year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors set cornerstones by way of signature titles, at the same time SVOD players load up the fall with new perspectives plus mythic dread. On the festival side, independent banners is propelled by the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. 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 franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends 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.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, paired with A hectic Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The incoming terror slate crowds right away with a January cluster, and then runs through midyear, and carrying into the December corridor, marrying brand heft, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Studios and streamers are embracing responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that convert these pictures into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the sturdy counterweight in programming grids, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still hedge the downside when it stumbles. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is space for diverse approaches, from series extensions to non-IP projects that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of brand names and fresh ideas, and a recommitted focus on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can launch on almost any weekend, generate a grabby hook for spots and short-form placements, and lead with patrons that arrive on Thursday nights and continue through the week two if the entry lands. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern indicates confidence in that engine. The slate begins with a heavy January band, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward Halloween and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the greater integration of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another return. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a new vibe or a casting pivot that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are embracing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a classic-referencing treatment without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected fueled by franchise iconography, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and short-form creative that mixes attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the Source studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a reimagined 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 well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan-forward 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 follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in careful craft and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. 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+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback navigate here slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register 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 framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is known enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from working when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner becomes something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a warped 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the power balance swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that manipulates the panic of a child’s mercurial senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.