Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An spine-tingling ghostly terror film from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval nightmare when drifters become pawns in a fiendish maze. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching portrayal of resistance and forgotten curse that will resculpt terror storytelling this Halloween season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy feature follows five strangers who awaken locked in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the oppressive rule of Kyra, a central character claimed by a millennia-old holy text monster. Be warned to be captivated by a big screen presentation that unites gut-punch terror with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reversed when the beings no longer descend from a different plane, but rather from within. This symbolizes the most terrifying part of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the tension becomes a intense fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving terrain, five young people find themselves stuck under the malevolent sway and possession of a uncanny being. As the team becomes paralyzed to fight her will, marooned and chased by terrors unfathomable, they are made to battle their soulful dreads while the moments mercilessly strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and bonds splinter, pressuring each cast member to doubt their being and the nature of personal agency itself. The cost surge with every minute, delivering a frightening tale that integrates paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dive into raw dread, an darkness beyond recorded history, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a presence that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is in denial until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure watchers internationally can watch this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to a global viewership.


Tune in for this life-altering fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to face these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For film updates, making-of footage, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts Mixes biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, plus series shake-ups

Beginning with life-or-death fear saturated with scriptural legend and onward to franchise returns set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most complex along with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses bookend the months via recognizable brands, at the same time platform operators saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is riding the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored 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 title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming Horror slate: Sequels, standalone ideas, paired with A busy Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The arriving scare calendar lines up up front with a January crush, from there spreads through the summer months, and straight through the festive period, balancing IP strength, novel approaches, and strategic alternatives. Studios and platforms are doubling down on right-sized spends, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the steady counterweight in studio calendars, a genre that can grow when it catches and still protect the losses when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to greenlighters that modestly budgeted fright engines can galvanize the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The energy pushed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The sum for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across the field, with intentional bunching, a mix of known properties and new concepts, and a revived focus on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Insiders argue the space now acts as a flex slot on the grid. The genre can debut on virtually any date, provide a easy sell for marketing and reels, and over-index with fans that turn out on advance nights and stick through the subsequent weekend if the entry fires. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores conviction in that approach. The slate starts with a front-loaded January run, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and into early November. The calendar also includes the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another sequel. They are setting up lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that flags a new vibe or a star attachment that connects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That pairing yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a roots-evoking bent without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign stacked with signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will drive mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to reprise uncanny live moments and bite-size content that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, physical-effects centered execution can feel big on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can accelerate 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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that optimizes both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed content with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, genre hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival pickups, timing horror entries near launch and staging as events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. 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 select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The question, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is steady enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not deter a day-date try from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre point to a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 credible, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 organizes 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 journeys 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: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that leverages the dread of a child’s inconsistent point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family caught in returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundscape, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. More about the author Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.