Ancient Evil reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked shocker, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

This blood-curdling occult terror film from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an age-old curse when unfamiliar people become subjects in a dark game. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of resilience and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct horror this autumn. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and eerie suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who come to isolated in a isolated cabin under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Prepare to be drawn in by a big screen display that merges soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the beings no longer develop outside the characters, but rather inside them. This mirrors the shadowy layer of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the events becomes a intense fight between moral forces.


In a forsaken woodland, five souls find themselves caught under the possessive aura and spiritual invasion of a obscure apparition. As the team becomes unresisting to withstand her command, exiled and tormented by unknowns beyond reason, they are obligated to encounter their inner demons while the final hour relentlessly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and ties erode, pushing each cast member to question their values and the nature of conscious will itself. The intensity escalate with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dig into basic terror, an spirit from prehistory, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and testing a power that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is shocking because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure households around the globe can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this visceral descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to confront these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar integrates Mythic Possession, independent shockers, and tentpole growls

From survival horror rooted in near-Eastern lore to returning series set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the richest paired with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors hold down the year via recognizable brands, even as digital services stack the fall with unboxed visions paired with scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is riding the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

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 is a smart play. No overweight mythology. No series drag. 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.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 Makes a Comeback
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.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. 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 centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next chiller Year Ahead: next chapters, standalone ideas, in tandem with A brimming Calendar designed for frights

Dek The incoming terror calendar crowds immediately with a January logjam, before it runs through the warm months, and running into the year-end corridor, combining name recognition, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that shape these films into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has grown into the most reliable move in studio slates, a lane that can break out when it breaks through and still buffer the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that disciplined-budget scare machines can shape the zeitgeist, the following year sustained momentum with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across studios, with planned clusters, a combination of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a tightened attention on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium home window and streaming.

Schedulers say the horror lane now works like a swing piece on the slate. The genre can premiere on a wide range of weekends, create a quick sell for spots and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that appear on Thursday previews and stay strong through the next pass if the title lands. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores certainty in that setup. The calendar starts with a loaded January window, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a fall run that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. The studios are not just turning out another follow-up. They are aiming to frame lineage with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a refreshed voice or a casting move that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing material texture, real effects and location-forward worlds. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a vital pairing of familiarity and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a legacy-leaning strategy without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and bite-size content that melds romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to maximize 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, on-set effects led style can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. my company handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the after-window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about originals and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events rollouts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan 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 acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios this contact form slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern audio and picture. 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 theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not block a day-date move from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and widen scale. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 abrasive boss fight to survive on a remote island as the pecking order upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 household haunting piece that pipes the unease through a kid’s volatile personal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 ignites, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family linked to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: ongoing. 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 era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

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 expanded PLF presence 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele news event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, 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 materiality, soundscape, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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.