Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One unnerving otherworldly scare-fest from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient entity when unfamiliar people become victims in a malevolent ordeal. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of overcoming and timeless dread that will revamp terror storytelling this ghoul season. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy motion picture follows five figures who emerge trapped in a remote cabin under the ominous manipulation of Kyra, a central character controlled by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be hooked by a audio-visual event that unites deep-seated panic with timeless legends, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a historical theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the presences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the grimmest side of the group. The result is a harrowing inner struggle where the emotions becomes a perpetual struggle between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving woodland, five figures find themselves stuck under the unholy control and control of a uncanny woman. As the victims becomes incapacitated to combat her curse, detached and pursued by creatures impossible to understand, they are compelled to deal with their greatest panics while the deathwatch harrowingly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and friendships implode, pushing each soul to evaluate their essence and the nature of independent thought itself. The cost magnify with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract pure dread, an presence born of forgotten ages, influencing inner turmoil, and questioning a spirit that tests the soul when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring fans in all regions can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has earned over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this gripping path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these haunting secrets about human nature.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and announcements directly from production, follow @YACFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. calendar interlaces old-world possession, independent shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in ancient scripture through to installment follow-ups together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the most complex plus calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, in parallel platform operators pack the fall with unboxed visions set against ancient terrors. On another front, indie storytellers is drafting behind the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

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

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
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 goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
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 buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more 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. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching scare year to come: brand plays, original films, And A packed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The arriving horror calendar crams from the jump with a January traffic jam, following that carries through summer, and straight through the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterweight. Studios and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has turned into the dependable tool in studio calendars, a category that can grow when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can galvanize pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The run rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles proved there is an opening for many shades, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across the industry, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and novel angles, and a reinvigorated eye on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the horror lane now serves as a wildcard on the schedule. Horror can debut on numerous frames, furnish a easy sell for marketing and reels, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and sustain through the second frame if the offering lands. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm signals trust in that model. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into late October and past the holiday. The gridline also shows the stronger partnership of indie arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and expand at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just pushing another next film. They are looking to package lore continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that suggests a reframed mood or a star attachment that anchors a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on physical effects work, practical gags and specific settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of assurance and shock, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit creepy live activations and short reels that fuses attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led style can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival snaps, securing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to open out. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-date try from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot in tandem, allows marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror indicate a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive 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 finished their premium pass.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 push to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting piece that toys with the chill of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family bound to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 low-to-mid 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 capitalize on those pockets. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The click site pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and camera work 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.