Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

One frightening supernatural fear-driven tale from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval curse when passersby become tools in a demonic struggle. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of survival and old world terror that will reshape horror this Halloween season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy film follows five young adults who awaken isolated in a far-off shelter under the hostile influence of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a ancient holy text monster. Be warned to be enthralled by a filmic ride that blends visceral dread with timeless legends, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reversed when the forces no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside them. This depicts the shadowy version of the cast. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a merciless confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a remote terrain, five campers find themselves isolated under the ghastly influence and inhabitation of a unknown being. As the group becomes unable to combat her manipulation, abandoned and hunted by entities inconceivable, they are forced to face their worst nightmares while the seconds unceasingly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and relationships dissolve, pushing each cast member to reconsider their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The hazard accelerate with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that weaves together otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel ancestral fear, an malevolence beyond time, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a spirit that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers globally can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this cinematic spiral into evil. Stream *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 U.S. Slate integrates Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Spanning survival horror saturated with primordial scripture through to IP renewals paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most textured in tandem with blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, while OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: 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 presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 fear lineup: entries, Originals, paired with A hectic Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The emerging scare slate loads from day one with a January logjam, from there rolls through the summer months, and straight through the festive period, combining marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded release strategy. Studios and streamers are focusing on right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in release strategies, a space that can expand when it performs and still protect the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that efficiently budgeted genre plays can steer the national conversation, the following year sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is capacity for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of marquee IP and untested plays, and a renewed priority on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now acts as a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can arrive on numerous frames, yield a quick sell for trailers and TikTok spots, and over-index with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering hits. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout shows comfort in that engine. The year launches with a stacked January run, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall corridor that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The map also underscores the tightening integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and legacy IP. The companies are not just producing another chapter. They are moving to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a new installment to a classic era. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the most watched originals are leaning into on-set craft, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is crisp, soulful, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to renew uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that blurs love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven style can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by minute detail and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ladder that maximizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the back half. Prime Video stitches together outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about own-slate titles and festival buys, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and turning into events go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse 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 tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a handful of late-summer and Young & Cursed fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall 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 ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. 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 loss-struck man’s synthetic partner escalates into something romantically 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 work to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 intimate haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a youth’s flickering POV. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location 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: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household entangled with past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: active. 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 fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 stealth-hit search 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, 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 detail, acoustics, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.