Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on top streamers

An haunting unearthly thriller from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient fear when foreigners become conduits in a supernatural contest. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of resilience and age-old darkness that will reimagine genre cinema this season. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and gothic tale follows five people who wake up ensnared in a cut-off shack under the malevolent rule of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a theatrical journey that harmonizes gut-punch terror with folklore, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a historical foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer appear outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This represents the grimmest shade of each of them. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the events becomes a relentless struggle between right and wrong.


In a isolated woodland, five young people find themselves trapped under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a elusive apparition. As the youths becomes unresisting to deny her control, marooned and chased by spirits mind-shattering, they are compelled to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter coldly ticks toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and bonds crack, forcing each soul to evaluate their values and the notion of decision-making itself. The danger climb with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover basic terror, an presence older than civilization itself, filtering through mental cracks, and challenging a power that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is shocking because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers across the world can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, plus franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror grounded in near-Eastern lore all the way to legacy revivals and incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered and precision-timed year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously digital services pack the fall with fresh voices plus old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner sets the tone with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing 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, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No swollen lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

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 likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new Horror slate: entries, original films, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The incoming horror year builds from day one with a January bottleneck, then stretches through summer corridors, and continuing into the year-end corridor, combining legacy muscle, new concepts, and savvy release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has proven to be the surest move in programming grids, a vertical that can grow when it hits and still buffer the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reminded greenlighters that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The upswing extended into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles made clear there is capacity for varied styles, from continued chapters to original one-offs that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with obvious clusters, a pairing of established brands and original hooks, and a sharpened focus on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can debut on many corridors, yield a quick sell for ad units and vertical videos, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on preview nights and stay strong through the next pass if the title lands. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence exhibits confidence in that setup. The calendar rolls out with a weighty January window, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a fall run that reaches into spooky season and into November. The schedule also features the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and subscription services that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and established properties. Distribution groups are not just rolling another entry. They are moving to present continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a new tone or a casting move that ties a next film to a heyday. At the very same time, the directors behind the top original plays are embracing on-set craft, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward bent without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push leaning on recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a tease 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers Get More Info involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will seek broad awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development 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 sets up a final title to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are presented as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that leans into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around lore, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins 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 characterized by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed films with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard 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 hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding see here the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by 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 subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

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

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

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss fight to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 domestic haunting scenario that frames the panic through a youth’s uncertain perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led ghost 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 parody return that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or migrated in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 search for sleepers 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 press those advantages. 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. 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 tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, and camera work 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.