Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on top streamers

One bone-chilling unearthly fear-driven tale from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primeval force when newcomers become vehicles in a cursed conflict. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful episode of resilience and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize scare flicks this season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric film follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness caught in a far-off dwelling under the sinister will of Kyra, a central character controlled by a two-thousand-year-old ancient fiend. Be warned to be enthralled by a screen-based display that fuses bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the shadowy part of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the tension becomes a unyielding push-pull between moral forces.


In a remote wilderness, five adults find themselves isolated under the possessive presence and possession of a enigmatic being. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to resist her grasp, isolated and followed by beings inconceivable, they are confronted to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline without pity runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension rises and relationships break, coercing each character to question their core and the idea of autonomy itself. The intensity amplify with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that marries spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke deep fear, an entity older than civilization itself, working through emotional fractures, and highlighting a darkness that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure streamers no matter where they are can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this visceral voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to survive these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate Mixes old-world possession, indie terrors, plus Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare inspired by mythic scripture through to franchise returns alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered along with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, while SVOD players crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against mythic dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is propelled by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. 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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching terror slate: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A loaded Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The fresh scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the late-year period, marrying brand heft, new concepts, and well-timed alternatives. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that transform these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the sturdy counterweight in programming grids, a corner that can lift when it lands and still hedge the downside when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range scare machines can drive audience talk, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and elevated films made clear there is capacity for many shades, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that play globally. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that seems notably aligned across players, with planned clusters, a combination of familiar brands and new pitches, and a tightened emphasis on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on numerous frames, provide a quick sell for teasers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with audiences that arrive on preview nights and return through the next pass if the movie lands. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates assurance in that engine. The slate commences with a thick January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The grid also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the precise moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just rolling another chapter. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a nostalgia-forward strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push driven by recognizable motifs, character previews, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that threads love and unease.

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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a in-your-face, physical-effects centered execution can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around lore, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the downstream. Prime Video will mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and editorial rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to launch and making event-like arrivals with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of selective theatrical runs and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will matter 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+ continues to evaluate horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready 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 in parallel, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The trade-off, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is steady enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror suggest a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 ventures 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: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 rugged island as the pecking order turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 lower and 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 use those gaps. 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 More about the author 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 buffet, 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 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and cinematography 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.