Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One hair-raising metaphysical thriller from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an ancient evil when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a demonic conflict. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of resistance and age-old darkness that will remodel terror storytelling this season. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and atmospheric thriller follows five characters who suddenly rise imprisoned in a off-grid shack under the ominous sway of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a ancient ancient fiend. Be prepared to be seized by a theatrical presentation that melds visceral dread with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a mainstay pillar in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the presences no longer come outside the characters, but rather from within. This illustrates the deepest layer of these individuals. The result is a intense identity crisis where the plotline becomes a ongoing fight between virtue and vice.


In a forsaken landscape, five friends find themselves trapped under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a uncanny spirit. As the survivors becomes helpless to deny her dominion, left alone and stalked by creatures impossible to understand, they are thrust to acknowledge their darkest emotions while the timeline brutally ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and connections collapse, prompting each figure to scrutinize their essence and the concept of volition itself. The hazard escalate with every second, delivering a terror ride that intertwines spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into primitive panic, an curse older than civilization itself, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and testing a curse that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that customers worldwide can engage with this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has earned over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to international horror buffs.


Join this haunted descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to dive into these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





American horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. Slate blends biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, in parallel with series shake-ups

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in scriptural legend and including series comebacks as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted together with blueprinted year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors hold down the year via recognizable brands, even as platform operators saturate the fall with debut heat and mythic dread. On the festival side, the art-house flank is propelled by the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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 Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. 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. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed 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.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on 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 retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare season: follow-ups, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The emerging scare slate loads immediately with a January traffic jam, from there unfolds through the warm months, and pushing into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, fresh ideas, and savvy offsets. The big buyers and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that shape genre titles into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the steady tool in distribution calendars, a lane that can break out when it connects and still limit the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can command the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The trend moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of household franchises and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a fill-in ace on the programming map. Horror can kick off on most weekends, supply a clean hook for ad units and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and stick through the follow-up frame if the release fires. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates conviction in that setup. The year gets underway with a thick January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a fall run that pushes into the fright window and beyond. The schedule also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across linked properties and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that flags a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on tactile craft, physical gags and specific settings. That convergence yields 2026 a confident blend of home base and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that shifts into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date affords Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, in-camera leaning style can feel big on a lean spend. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both devotees and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that maximizes both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival snaps, timing horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series horror and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. 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 likely scenario is a brace 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 debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years outline the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not block a dual release from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind this year’s genre hint at a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is jammed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 credible, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: tone-first 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 cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that routes the horror through a minor’s volatile subjective lens. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked 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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and imagery 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.