Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on top streamers

An spine-tingling unearthly suspense story from narrative craftsman / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten evil when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a hellish ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of perseverance and age-old darkness that will transform genre cinema this Halloween season. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic film follows five figures who are stirred caught in a isolated dwelling under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a antiquated biblical demon. Prepare to be enthralled by a narrative event that merges intense horror with ancient myths, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a classic concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the presences no longer come from an outside force, but rather from their core. This marks the grimmest side of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the plotline becomes a intense tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving wild, five figures find themselves isolated under the malevolent rule and possession of a shadowy woman. As the team becomes vulnerable to withstand her manipulation, disconnected and stalked by creatures ungraspable, they are cornered to battle their greatest panics while the clock coldly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and connections crack, pressuring each figure to question their personhood and the concept of conscious will itself. The danger rise with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that blends occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into instinctual horror, an spirit from ancient eras, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and challenging a evil that strips down our being when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring audiences in all regions can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this gripping exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to confront these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For director insights, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, set against franchise surges

From survivor-centric dread grounded in scriptural legend and extending to IP renewals plus incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most complex as well as calculated campaign year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios bookend the months with established lines, at the same time premium streamers prime the fall with discovery plays alongside mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the carry from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner sets the tone with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

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

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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 Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point 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
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

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



The approaching chiller Year Ahead: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A brimming Calendar Built For shocks

Dek: The new scare slate crowds from the jump with a January crush, and then runs through midyear, and continuing into the festive period, blending brand heft, inventive spins, and smart counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that shape these films into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the steady option in release strategies, a genre that can lift when it resonates and still limit the liability when it fails to connect. After 2023 signaled to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted genre plays can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and festival-grade titles highlighted there is capacity for different modes, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The result for the 2026 slate is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a combination of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a revived priority on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium rental and digital services.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a wildcard on the rollout map. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, create a grabby hook for marketing and shorts, and exceed norms with patrons that come out on early shows and return through the second weekend if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan telegraphs confidence in that logic. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January run, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a fall run that stretches into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The schedule also shows the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and classic IP. Studio teams are not just making another continuation. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a cast configuration that anchors a next film to a first wave. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of familiarity and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking mode without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with great post to read Universal’s campaign likely to mirror strange in-person beats and micro spots that hybridizes romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are treated as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led treatment can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror jolt that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around canon, and monster craft, elements that can boost format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and historical speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that fortifies both initial urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves library titles with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when movies the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. 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 moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for the title, an good sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Comparable trends from recent years make sense of the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not block a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to More about the author sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind these films indicate a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with 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 tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease 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 built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which work nicely for fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month winds down 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 legit, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed 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 rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a remote island as the pecking order tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting scenario that leverages the terror of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. 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 antique diction and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and picture 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.