Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, bowing October 2025 on top streamers

A terrifying unearthly terror film from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old evil when passersby become subjects in a diabolical maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense journey of staying alive and age-old darkness that will reconstruct terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness sealed in a remote dwelling under the dark power of Kyra, a central character occupied by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be immersed by a filmic ride that combines deep-seated panic with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic element in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reversed when the malevolences no longer form from beyond, but rather from their core. This portrays the shadowy element of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat moral showdown where the suspense becomes a perpetual clash between light and darkness.


In a barren outland, five young people find themselves sealed under the dark influence and haunting of a mysterious character. As the survivors becomes powerless to escape her rule, stranded and stalked by unknowns unnamable, they are confronted to confront their emotional phantoms while the final hour without pause winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and alliances shatter, pressuring each person to contemplate their identity and the philosophy of independent thought itself. The danger mount with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that integrates paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract basic terror, an presence born of forgotten ages, filtering through our fears, and wrestling with a force that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is haunting because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure customers internationally can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Do not miss this visceral journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these unholy truths about inner darkness.


For teasers, extra content, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit our film’s homepage.





Modern horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 domestic schedule weaves biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, and series shake-ups

Across endurance-driven terror grounded in biblical myth and including canon extensions and pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most complex plus carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios lock in tentpoles with established lines, in parallel OTT services saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside ancient terrors. In parallel, festival-forward creators is carried on the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. 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, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming spook season: brand plays, non-franchise titles, as well as A jammed Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek The arriving horror calendar clusters from the jump with a January crush, before it stretches through summer, and continuing into the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, novel approaches, and smart release strategy. Studios with streamers are betting on efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that frame these releases into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has turned into the dependable option in studio lineups, a genre that can break out when it catches and still safeguard the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 reassured executives that cost-conscious pictures can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles confirmed there is space for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new packages, and a renewed focus on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and SVOD.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can arrive on many corridors, create a clean hook for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with demo groups that come out on opening previews and sustain through the second frame if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows faith in that approach. The slate kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The layout also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty arms and streamers that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and expand at the precise moment.

An added macro current is franchise tending across linked properties and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another entry. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that flags a reframed mood or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a first wave. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into tactile craft, real effects and grounded locations. That alloy hands 2026 a healthy mix of home base and newness, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a legacy handover and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a heritage-honoring angle without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are sold as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame allows Universal to dominate 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror blast that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee 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 feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material More about the author in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles provide the air. 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and widen scale. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind these films telegraph a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which fit with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss claw to survive on a remote island as the chain of command tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and creeping 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 home-set haunting piece that routes the horror through a young child’s wavering subjective lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. 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: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound, and visuals 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, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.